Exit to Freedom

"With God as my witness, I have been falsely accused of these crimes. I did not commit them. I'm an innocent man." In 1983 Calvin C. Johnson Jr. spoke these words to a judge who later handed down a life sentence for rape and related crimes. Johnson spent sixteen years behind bars before he was freed in 1999 after DNA testing conclusively ruled out the possibility of his guilt.

Exit to Freedom is the unforgettable story of Johnson's unrelenting quest for justice against incredible odds and under circumstances that threatened to shred his dignity and hope. As Johnson recalls his trial and long journey toward freedom through five Georgia prisons, he also speaks candidly about everything from his middle-class childhood in Atlanta to the reasons he came to be a rape suspect to the steadfast support of his family. This is also a story of faith: how Johnson found it in prison and how, he believes, it played a role in his release.

At the point in his prison term when Johnson thought that he had exhausted all avenues of appeal, DNA-based forensics began to make headlines. Eventually his case was taken up by the Innocence Project, the nonprofit legal clinic renowned for overturning convictions through DNA testing of evidence. Years of delay followed, but Johnson eventually became the sixty-first convict to be exonerated with the Innocence Project's help. His is the only first-person account of a wrongful conviction overturned through DNA testing.

However disturbed readers may become by this portrait of a justice system undermined by its own cynicism, Johnson himself feels no bitterness toward his accusers. In a book that offers many lessons about freedom, that may be the most important one of all.

Calvin C. Johnson was convicted of rape in 1983 and was kept in prison on a life sentence until DNA evidence cleared him in 1999. In this memoir, he recounts how he came to those circumstances, the horrors of life in prison, and his efforts to prove his innocence with the aid of the Prisoner Legal Counseling Project, the Innocence Project, and others. Much of the material, as might be expected, is devoted to the many strategies—physical, mental, and legal—necessary to even survive in Georgia's prison system. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Kirkus Reviews

Johnson, in a remarkably even voice, details his trial and 16 years in prison for a rape he did not commit, ending with the long-suffering process that established his innocence. Johnson grew up in middle-class Atlanta, a good student, hard-working, but with a taste for fast living. In college, he got busted for buying marijuana from an undercover cop. In his one real act of stupidity, he attempted to burgle an apartment for money to pay a pricey lawyer to get him off the drug charge. Awaiting trial, he was accused of having committed an earlier sexual assault; though the charges were dropped, the paperwork never got cleared up, and the false charge kept coming back to haunt him. Released on parole, he is immediately picked up for another rape, and though there's ample evidence he didn't commit the crime-and none to prove he did-he gets convicted: "I am about to serve a life sentence, plus thirty years, for a rape I did not commit, and it is considered a repeat offense, because of another rape I did not commit." In his chosen mild tone, Johnson notes that "jail is a rude awakening, but it is indeed an awakening," and he will have 16 years to have his eyes opened. "In prison every encounter is like a move in chess," where consequences abound and multiply, both with guards and inmates. Even given his will and dignity, madness approaches; so too does religion-"The emphasis on rebirth and acceptance . . . [is] universally [needed] by men who desire another chance at life"-despite the pitfalls: "faith is the purest form of hope, and hope disgusts me," he says, at least at first. Miracles come in the form of DNA testing, lawyers Peter Neufeld and Barry Scheck, the Innocence Project, and sweetrelease. A rare individual, victim of not-too-rare legal circumstances, with a story that will have readers grinding their teeth until the end. (10 pp. b&w photos)

Calvin C. Johnson Jr. lives and works in the Atlanta area. He is on the board of the Georgia Innocence Project. Greg Hampikian is a professor at Boise State University with a joint appointment in the biology and criminal justice departments. He is also director of the Idaho Innocence Project. Barry Scheck is cofounder of the Innocence Project.