Innocent While Incarcerated: The Diary of Justin Lunsford

What have you done in life for the last eleven years?Have you spent time with friends and loved ones traveled on vacation accomplished career goals and enjoyed what most would consider a normal American life? Now imagine missing all that. Imagine instead that you spent the last eleven years in prison with twelve years to go convicted of a crime you did not commit and nobody least of all the justice system cared enough to listen. Justin Lunsford doesnt have to imagine. It happened to him. This is his diary.It is important to note in this regard that actual innocence means factual innocence not mere legal insufficiency. In other words the Government is not limited to the existing record to rebut any showing that a petitioner might make. Rather on remand the Government should be permitted to presentany admissible evidence of a petitioners guilt even if that evidence was not presented during petitioners plea colloquy and would not normally have been offered. In cases where the Government has forgone more serious charges in the course of plea-bargaining petitioners showing of actual innocence must also extend to those charges.Bousley v. United States 523 U.S. 614 118 S. Ct. 1604 140L. Ed. 2d 828 1998 U.S. LEXIS 3334 66 U.S.L.W. 4346 98Cal. Daily Op. Service 3723 98 Daily Journal DAR 5135 1998Colo. J. C.A.R. 2447 11 Fla. L. Weekly Fed. S 532