ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the exoneration entails, the forms it takes, and how it comes to occur. It explores the impacts, both short and long term, of the wrongful conviction and exoneration on the individuals who experience it. The chapter offers the voice of an exoneree, Damon Thibodeaux, and one of his postconviction attorneys, Steven Kaplan. Damon Thibodeaux was wrongly convicted of the rape and murder of his 14-year-old cousin in 1996 and spent nearly 15 years on Louisiana's death row before being exonerated in 2012. Steve Kaplan is a tax attorney in Minneapolis, Minnesota, with previously little criminal law or appellate experience who took on Damon's case pro bono in 2001, unaware of exactly what he was getting into but determined to save Damon's life. Their story was recently highlighted in an article in the Minneapolis StarTribune. The chapter then focuses on the profile of the case of Kerry Cook.
