After spending 16 years in jail for the murder of his 14 year old sister-in-law, despite mountainous evidence that he did not commit the crime, Floyd Bledsoe was released. He is using his freedom to speak to people about the importance of the Midwest Innocence Projects and to show them what can happen when justice is miscarried, as he did when he visited Emporia State last Thursday.
“I’m here today to try to make sense, to try to make you understand that innocence is real,” Bledsoe said. “Not everybody who is charged with a crime is real. Not everyone who you see in the paper that says they’re convicted of a crime is truly guilty.”
Bledsoe challenged the students, faculty and staff in attendance to help the Midwest Innocence Project and to become the change the world needs. The project assists persons wrongfully convicted in Missouri, Kansas, Arkansas, Iowa and Nebraska, according to their website.
“I want each and everyone of you guys to become that change,” Bledsoe said. “Don’t wait on somebody else to perform that change. You do it…You are the future of this nation. What you guys decide in the next 5, 10 years will become the norm.”
Bledsoe was found guilty for raping and murdering his 14 year old sister-in-law, Camille, due to mishandled evidence, false information and a poorly administered lie detector test. When his brother, Tom Bledsoe, left information in a suicide note clearing Floyd’s name, the courts were still hesitant to release him, so his lawyers used the press to motivate the county attorney.
Floyd Bledsoe was released in 2015, according to NBC.
“I lost my land. I lost my wife. I lost my two young children,” Floyd Bledsoe said. “I learned a lot about what forgiveness is. Forgiveness is not allowing people to hurt you. Forgiveness is not forgetting. Forgiveness is not letting that anger and hate stay within in you.”