Damon Thibodeaux: After Innocence from WUNC / The Story — Transcript

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1. 0:00[Music]
2. 0:05I was convicted of first-degree murder
3. 0:11and rape of a 14-year-old girl um
4. 0:15sentenced to die in Jefferson
5. 0:18Parish um spent 15 years on death row
6. 0:22and
7. 0:24um through a uh patient
8. 0:3015 years you know
9. 0:33um eventually prove my innocence and
10. 0:37here I sit I was
11. 0:4122 I am 38 now and it's a big chunk
12. 0:45that's missing you know but I'm thankful
13. 0:48I can live the rest of
14. 0:49it you know
15. 0:51um but it still would be nice to
16. 0:57uh have that back but we all know that's
17. 0:59it's not an option so you know everyone
18. 1:02gets up goes to work you know does their
19. 1:058 hours at work or their 12 hours at
20. 1:07work or whatever and they go home and
21. 1:09you know put their feet up drink a beer
22. 1:10or whatever
23. 1:13well exonorees
24. 1:17have a missing chunk out of their life a
25. 1:21lot of the times I'll catch myself
26. 1:23thinking well what if this person
27. 1:25standing next to me in an
28. 1:27elevator uh knew my story
29. 1:31or what would they do in a situation
30. 1:34like mine you know
31. 1:36what
32. 1:38um could they go through it and not be
33. 1:41angry and a large portion of the people
34. 1:43I've met said that they would be
35. 1:48furious well yeah you say that now but
36. 1:52when when when you realize what you have
37. 1:54to
38. 1:54do after you get out after going through
39. 1:57something like this yeah there is anger
40. 2:00don't get me wrong
41. 2:04but people deal with it in different
42. 2:07ways you know so um I choose to do it in
43. 2:11a positive
44. 2:12way no matter what happens during the
45. 2:16day how good the rest of the day is how
46. 2:18bad the rest of the day is the best part
47. 2:20is I wake up and there's no
48. 2:23bars you know and I'll I'll sit there in
49. 2:25the morning and I'll just have this
50. 2:27smile on my face and
51. 2:30lay there and
52. 2:32just stare off because it's nice you
53. 2:35know I'm in a real bed with a real
54. 2:36pillow no bars no uh
55. 2:40cell you know I have the keys to my own
56. 2:44apartment a private
57. 2:47bathroom I can walk into my own kitchen
58. 2:49cook my own food or order a pizza or
59. 2:54whatever you know
60. 2:56um it's the little things that you Miss
61. 3:00like
62. 3:01that I'd like
63. 3:03to see the system get
64. 3:06better you know it can get
65. 3:09better you know and there is room for
66. 3:13improvement
67. 3:16um how many more is it going to take
68. 3:19[Music]
69. 3:33[Music]