63 year old Andrew J. Johnson has been exonerated after being found guilty of a crime he did not commit and spending 23 years in a Wyoming prison. Now, after being released and having his name cleared, he is struggling to live a normal life.
63 year old Andrew J. Johnson has been exonerated after being found guilty of a crime he did not commit and spending 23 years in a Wyoming prison.
Now, after being released and having his name cleared, he is struggling to live a normal life.
Johnson is quoted as saying: “When I left out of society, I was married, I was raising a child, I had a picket fence, a car, everything, I worked for that. Now the state doesn't want to give any of that back to me."
Back in 1989, Johnson was sentenced to life in prison for an alleged sexual assault and burglary.
But when forensic evidence found that Johnson’s DNA didn’t match the seminal fluid that was indentified at the crime scene using a rape assault kit, he was freed after being behind bars for 23 years.
Although he has been the recipient of cash donations taken for his case by The Rocky Mountain Innocence Center, and a car that was donated, he has struggled to adjust to life on the outside with little help from the state of Wyoming.
He was denied social security and disability benefits. However, there is hope a new bill will be introduced in Wyoming’s next legislative session that might give Johnson compensation for time spent in jail to the tune of 75 dollars per day not to exceed 300 thousand dollars total.
