The Ring Leader!

Dewey Bozella was wrongly convicted of murder but wins in the end!

The U.S. Justice System is designed to be perfect but the people running it many times refuse to be. How many times have we seen people wrongly convicted because of the personal bias' and political agenda's of prosecutors and judges? As a result, many innocent people have wasted away in prison cells and often times been executed because they needed to convict somebody but not necessarily the right body.

Dewey Bozella, a 52 year old boxer who spent 26 years in Sing Sing Prison for a murder that he didn't commit, made his first and last professional fight a successful one Saturday with a four round unanimous decision over Larry Hopkins(0-4).

"This was my first and last fight," Bozella said. "This is a young man's game. I did what I came to do. I appreciate what everyone did for me. This was one of the greatest moments of my life."

When Bozella was convicted in 1983 for a 1977 murder in New York he was initially sentenced to 20 years in prison. After serving 6 years he went before the parole board that told him if he'd just admit to the murder he could go free. Bozella refused to admit to something that he hadn't done and subsequently served an additional 20 years.

It was later proven that the prosecutors suppressed evidence that would have proven Bozella's innocence during the original trial. How can a person sleep at night knowing that they've just railroaded someone's life like that? Unbelievable! The sad thing about it is that it happens all of the time!

The United States Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, admits that statistically 8% to 12% of all state prisoners are either actually or factually innocent. Now lets keep it real or all the way 100, which ever comes first! Those numbers only represent what folks are admitting to. We know that the numbers have got to be more than twice that if we're keeping it real and unfortunately the majority of those wrongly convicted have been African-American.

As of 2010, the 250 people exonerated in this country were sent to prison in 33 states for a combined 3,160 years. That’s an average of 13 years in prison for each inmate. Sadly, 60 percent of them were African American while only 29 percent were white. Of those, 17 were on death row when they were exonerated. How many people have died in prison as a result of either execution or prison violence that shouldn't have been there in the first place?

I'm happy for brothers like Dewey that have endured the injustice and have come out to make a positive impact on our youth as a result of speaking and sharing his story.

When I was a kid my dad would always say, "Son don't get caught driving the get-away car!" What he meant by that was, never be a follower. The guy that wants so badly to be with the crew is normally the one assigned to drive the get-away car. He never knows the plan and is clueless as to why the guys just jumped back into the car with ski-masks on but he gets the same prison time as the ring leader.

My point here young brothers is this; stay out of trouble in the first place and you'll be less likely to be convicted of anything. Notice that I said less likely because the possibility always exists. However, many times if you pull back the layers on guys wrongfully convicted. You'll find that they've been involved in other incidents in the past that makes it easier for prosecutors to use their character against them. Even though they were innocent of the crime at hand.

Holla At Ya Boy!
Jay Graves
Twitter:@jaygravesreport