Alan Newton’s first year of freedom

When

Alan Newton

was exonerated a year ago after serving 22 years in prison for a rape he didn’t commit, he “hit the ground running.” An article in yesterday’s New York Post visits Newton on the one year anniversary of his freedom, and he is smiling.

The determined Newton is intent on overcoming the indignity he’s had to live with for 22 years. He’s enrolled in school and will graduate with a B.S. in business administration from Medgar Evers College next June. Law school, he says, is next.

He works as a youth mentor, goes on dates, surfs the Internet, and has just returned from a vacation in St. Croix, in the Caribbean, where he water-skied.

“Every day is like a celebration,” Newton said. “I walk around with a smile on my face.”

Read the full story

here

. (NY Post, 07/08/07)

More coverage:

Freed after 20 years, he’s rebuilding his life

. (New York Daily News, 07/08/07)

Other exonerees celebrating anniversaries of their exonerations this week:

James Tillman

, Connecticut. (1 Year; Exonerated 7/11/06)

Lafonso Rollins

, Illinois (3 Years, Exonerated 7/12/04)