a roll of the dice, a flip of the cards

I don't think

life should be in somebody's hands

in a government's hands

that can take that away

My name is Ray Krone

and I'm the Director of Communication and Training

with Witness to Innocence.

Back in 1992 I was arrested for the murder of a barmaid

in Phoenix, Arizona, convicted solely

on bite-mark evidence, sent to death row.

And finally in 2002 we had DNA evidence that matched

another man

and I was subsequently released. And he was arrested

for the murder I spent

10 years, 3 months and 8 days in prison for.

A lot of time I start out with actually saying

I used to support the death penalty. I wasn't

Ra Ra Ra, Kill 'em all, but

from where I came from it just seemed acceptable

because it was something on television, it was something in the news

it didn't touch, affect our lives

It was for the worst of the worst. And I was one of those

portrayed as a monster

I was the one that they read about in the paper

or seen on television.

That's the person sentenced to death ...

he's a monster, kill him.

For those of us who were sent to death row wrongfully, that were innocent

we didn't know where it was gonna end

we didn't know when we were gonna get out.

And it wasn't just us, it was our families who were there with us.

We didn't know how it was gonna end. We're just fortunate to be able now

to come out now and tell that story.

What Witness is dedicated to is

abolishment of the death penalty through wrongful conviction

and exonerees telling their stories to the public and to

legislatures in hopes of change, and enlightenment in realizing that our system gets it wrong

and we can't have a penalty that's not reversible.

There's so many moving moments that happen when you go and speak with the public. I was

speaking at a law school nearby and afterwards

a person came up and said, you probably don't remember me

but you spoke to my high school class a few years ago.

It's because of you I went to law school and I want to be a defense

attorney so I can protect

more Ray Krones that are out there.

Before Ray

was arrested

and convicted, and sentenced to death, I'd never thought about the death penalty.

I didn't care about the death penalty, whether they had it or not.

It didn't matter to me.

Now since I've seen what

can happen, and how close

a tragedy can occur

with the legal system the way it is now

I am definitely against the death penalty.

And the possibility of the errors that can be made. We're very fortunate to

have the support from Atlantic Philanthropies. That

funding that they've given us has allowed us to continue

in our ability to speak and bring about public awareness

and of course legislative change

which of course resulted in the abolishment of the death penalty

in New Jersey, New Mexico, and Illinois. The death penalty must be abolished.

The finality of the sentence, the finality of taking of a life

leaves no room for error. But we get it wrong, we make mistakes.

There should be no punishment

that you can't reverse later on. Say I'm sorry I made a mistake. We were wrong.

Because we are human, our justice system is human.

They make mistakes, they get it wrong. Executing an innocent person has

most likely happened and will continue to happen until we do away with the death penalty.