60 minutes profiled a segment about the possibility of 200 cases being wrongly prosecuted. The bottom line? Men were thrown into jail without evidence by an overzealous, unethical Texas prosecutor.
One of those men wrongfully imprisoned was James Woodward, who lost 27 years of his life for a crime he did not commit. Mr. Woodward's parole opportunity was deny over dozen times. All those years of serving in prison for a crime he did not commit?
Hope.
Excerpt:
"You had hope?" Pelley asks.
"That’s all a man has," Woodard says. "I had hope for parole. I think I came up about 12 times."
Hope.
Romans 15:13 says, "May the God of all Hope...". In this life, you must have hope. When the days are so dark, you have to believe something will break forth for freedom, for life or for a break.
Amazing - in a real prison and the prison of a lie - Woodward could claim to one thing: Hope. That was the thing that kept him going: the truth of his innocence.
For Mr. Woodward, he was eventually set free.
We look at the world, and we think of money, power, or the vanity of this world, but you ask the deep, deep questions of life and you find everyone needs hope.
The African American teenager, hoping to break out of poverty and the gang-life to raise a family.
The American soldier who hopes to be reunited with his family.
The little girl who hopes this Christmas, a puppy will come.
The cancer fighter hoping for a new organ transplant.
The single mom hoping for a future for herself and her child.
The unemployed father hoping for that job offer.
That prisoner hoping to taste freedom once again.
We all need hope, it keeps us going. Take away home, you take away the very spirit of humanity.