US MAN FREED BY DNA EVIDENCE AFTER 35 YEARS IN JAIL

MAN LIVED 35 YEARS IN PRISON AFTER BEING WRONGLY
CONVICTED OF KIDNAPPING AND RAPING A BOY IN 1974

FLORIDA (BBC News) - James Bain, 54, was just 19 years old in 1974, and without a criminal record, when he was convicted of kidnapping and raping a 9-year-old Lake Wales boy, largely on the jury's faith in the boy's identification. Now a DNA evidence proved he was innocent of the crime he was convicted of 3 decades ago. He spent 35 years in jail after being found guilty of kidnapping and raping a boy. Bain's conviction was largely based on the strength of the victim's eyewitness identification. The boy said his attacker had bushy sideburns and a mustache. The boy's uncle, a former assistant principal at a high school, said it sounded like Bain, a former student. The boy picked Bain out of a photo lineup. But now the DNA test proved that Bain was not the rapist. On his release from prison in Florida on Thursday, he said he was not angry and the support of his family and his religious faith had helped him get through his ordeal. "[It] just was the right time for God to release me from this. I just had to be very patient for that. I cannot feel angry. I put all that in God's hands," he said. He plans to spend time with family, to go back to school for reading and writing, and to watch "Titanic," a film he says helped him survive prison life.

James Bain remained calm and patient, while his family waited eagerly to take him home. "I can't be angry," he said. "People had a job to do back then. It's just sad the way the outcome was." Had Bain's case been investigated today, the State Attorney's office says the trial might have gone differently. Many investigators are now trained to interview children, and DNA testing is available. Until the Innocence Project became involved, he said he felt "neglected" in the slow and complicated judicial process. He has always maintained his innocence, but was only allowed a review of his case following an appeal.

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US?

Material happiness invariably turns to unhappiness in its absence. Thus one should tolerate both happiness and distress knowing them to be one and the same in the ultimate issue. From a world of apparent variety one must learn to identify with its underlying unity. … This is the message of the Bhagavata (see SB 10.14.8). It tells us that our happiness and distress are our karma, behind which is the sanction of God. We are to tolerate not only because happiness and distress are mere fluctuations of the mind and thus categorically different from ourselves, but moreover because they can be traced to the sanction of God in deference to the principle of justice (karma).

Śrīla Bhakti Vedanta Tripurari Maharaja :

“Tolerance: the Ornament of the Saints”
Sri Caitanya Sanga - Vol. I, No. 3 - http://www.swami.org/