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Change, redemption do exist
By David Bruck
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Death Watch columns.
Change, redemption do exist
Parade magazine recently featured the story of Ray Krone,
an Arizona man sent to death row for a rape and murder that DNA evidence
eventually proved he did not commit. Cases like Krone’s are making many
Americans re-think their support for the death penalty, and may help
bring about long-overdue reforms in the criminal justice system.
On the surface, the case of Gerald Mason is the exact opposite of
Ray Krone’s. Mason is the 69-year-old Columbia man who pleaded guilty to
having murdered two California police officers nearly 46 years ago as
he fled from the scene of a kidnapping and rape. As with Ray Krone,
society guessed wrong about Gerald Mason. Krone was really a law-abiding
citizen whom everyone wrongly believed to be a rapist and murderer;
Gerald Mason has now turned out to be a rapist and murderer whom
everyone wrongly believed to be a law-abiding citizen.
Same warning
But while these men’s stories could hardly be more different
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