Today on NPR, Darryl Burton shared his story. In 1984, he was convicted of killing a well-known drug dealer. After years of repeatedly maintaining his innocence, legal research and self –study, writing letters, and filing pro se motions and pleas, someone finally listened to his story. He was exonerated of all charges in August of last year, after spending 24 years in jail for a crime he never committed.
What’s different about his story compared with others I’ve heard is his attitude. He describes himself as “better, not bitter” after his long, unjustified incarceration. When the interviewer asked him how he could have overcome bitterness after such an ordeal, he answered that he had found God in jail.
My scorned roots in Roman Catholicism prompted me to immediately dismiss such an unoriginal, tired answer. Another story about finding Jesus? Come on. But he continued. What spoke to him most about Jesus was his capacity for forgiveness. He was not judgmental as too many missionary-type Christians have come to be, but forgiving. He did not begrudge the prosecutor that neglected to turn over vital evidence to his defense attorney, nor his underpaid, overworked public defender. He forgave them for their role in his mistaken incarceration. He seems to have accepted his unacceptable wrongful imprisonment.
I always find it heartening to hear people actually taking the words and actions of Jesus to heart, rather than misusing and misinterpreting them for judgment and manipulation. I am no longer a “Christian,” having converted to Buddhism some years ago, but I am always touched when I hear of people taking the compassion and hope and forgiveness and gentleness and tolerance and acceptance that Jesus preached to heart. In my experience, most seem to take everything literally rather than using such qualities and tools in a dynamic way.
Darryl Burton is a much stronger, patient man than I. I can’t imagine the suffering of 24 years of hard time, especially for something you didn’t do. That he’s escaped still a calm and gentle soul is truly remarkable.
