You may not recognize the name Sharif Wilson; after all he spent the most productive years of his life behind bars. But Wilson is unique because he was wrongfully convicted of a triple murder when he was only 15. He was forced by police to confess to the crime but later recanted his testimony. He spent the next 21 years in jail for a crime he did not commit.
Wilson was freed after DNA evidence proved he was not involved in the murder, but prison took its toll. According to his lawyer, Adam Perlmutter, “He went into prison a healthy 15-year-old and he came out broken, bloated and morbidly obese.” Wilson’s obesity led to health issues that caused him to be hospitalized five times after his release from prison.
Tragically, only 11 months after his release, Wilson suffered an asthma attack and died this week. His family is devastated. “First they took him away when he was 15. Now he is gone forever,” said his mother, Gloria Wilson. According to Wilson’s family, he had dreams of starting a program to help other wrongfully convicted men who have been freed. His family stated Wilson was just a giving person, despite his life spent behind bars.
Wilson is part of a growing number of black men who were wrongfully convicted of crimes. According to the Innocence Project website, there have been 324 people exonerated for their crimes due to DNA testing. Of that number, 205 were black.
