Courtesy Luke Wirkkala
By Christina Carrega, CNN
John Jerome White was 19 years old when a Georgia judge sentenced him to life plus 40 years in prison for breaking into a 74-year-old woman’s home and raping her. Exonerated after DNA testing years later, he walked free in a state that does not have laws on the books to compensate the wrongfully convicted upon their release from prison.
“I was 48 when I got out. It was rough,” said White, who’s now 61. “If it hadn’t been for my family and the people who donated their time to help me, I just don’t know. … A lot of things were difficult, and the state of Georgia did nothing to help me.”