Confession #9: My son is guilty.

Facts, Not Feelings

I am a strong supporter of The Innocence Project and of Wrongful Conviction awareness, in general. Research-backed estimates place the number of falsely convicted United States citizens to be upwards of 200,000 people. While a significant problem that demands our consistent attention, I did not start a blog to build a case for my son’s innocence. He is not innocent.

He pled guilty because he was guilty of several U.S. criminal laws—

Do not collect $200. Do not pass Go.

We can all sleep better now, right?

No.

What he is guilty of has required an inquest of my soul. After years of tossing and turning at night (and reading and listening and studying), I have concluded that the laws which ushered my son through prison gates are not only unnecessary— they are fundamentally harming the rest of us.