A Price for Injustice

C hristopher Ochoa was sentenced to life in prison for the October 1988 rape and murder of NancyDePriest. The victim had been tied up, sexually assaulted, and shot in the head during an earlymorning robbery at an Austin, Texas Pizza Hut where she worked. Ada JoAnn Taylor was sentenced to 40 years in prison for playing a role in the 1985 murder and rape of Helen Wilson. The victim was stabbed and suffocated in her Beatrice, Neb. apartment. Brian Banks was sentenced to seven years in prison for raping a younger woman at the Los Angeles high school where he was attending summer school in 2002. After his release, he was required to register as a sex offender and to wear an electronic monitoring bracelet for a time. RodneyRoberts was sentenced to seven years in prison for the 1996 kidnapping of a 17-year-old woman in Newark, N.J. After completing his sentence, he was classified as a sexually violent predator and required to spend time in a secure treatment facility. Each of those convictions share two commonalities besides the horrific nature of the crimes. First, each of the individuals confessed and pleaded guilty to the crimes. Second, the individuals were subsequently exonerated on the basis of evidence or testimony that unequivocally demonstrated they had not committed the crimes in question. In these cases, there was significant collateral damage. Ochoa, in his plea arrangement, agreed to testify against his roommate, Richard Danziger, for also being involved in the murder. Ochoa, who ultimately spent 13 years in prison, indicated he took his plea deal and testified againstDanziger to avoid the risk of a death