Basic simple cheap outdoor/indoor clothing that is suitable for job interviews. See if you can find it at goodwill. Merino sweater, patagonia jacket or old wool suit, glasses, toothbrush, good backpack, from thrift store.
Ask HN: Just got an innocent man out of prison. What now?
61–70 of 220 posts
Re: Ask HN: Just got an innocent man out of prison. What now?
#62I think sticking with the GoFundMe campaign is probably the best way to go. But since it has stalled, it needs to be reinvigorated through some others means. You need to get the attention of someone in the media who will publish an article on the guy. Multiple articles from different publishers would be ideal. If a few medium to high profile companies put something out there you can definitely meet (and probably exce…
Thank you for your advice and your donation!
I am doing my best right now to reinvigorate the GoFundMe campaign. I'm grateful to everyone who shares it with others!
Re: Ask HN: Just got an innocent man out of prison. What now?
#63A lot of colleges and churches will lend people suit jackets and or leather shoes for job interviews. That really helps people, just make sure they feel comfortable and warm/cool enough and don't smell bad for job interview.
Re: Ask HN: Just got an innocent man out of prison. What now?
#64Earlier quoted context omitted.
He was an infantryman. Kicked down doors in Iraq going room-to-room searching for insurgents. Until the charges are formally dismissed, it's hard to imagine any employer will actually be willing to hire him. The DA's office is really making his life hard by refusing to just immediately stipulate that he's an innocent man.
Has he expressed what kind of work he would like to do if he could?
We're trying to figure that out. This whole thing has been pretty overwhelming.
Ray mostly just wants to spend time with his kids, whose lives he has been missing from for so long.
Re: Ask HN: Just got an innocent man out of prison. What now?
#65If he is in the LA area, he is not far from San Diego. You can get there by bus, inexpensively, by taking local (commuter) buses instead of the Greyhound. I spent over 3 years homeless down there. Here is my blog about resources in San Diego county: http://sandiegohomelesssurvivalguide.blogspot.com/
The North County is cheaper and has more open land for stealthily camping.
I also do freelance writing and one of my newest blogs covers that. It is linked from that blog specifically, but here is the direct link: http://writepay.blogspot.com/
That doesn't mean that what worked for me in specific will work for him in specific, but it is a place to start.
If he is a veteran, he may also be entitled to free medical care and access to other military services, though I don't know how his conviction impacts that. I believe felons cannot get food stamps, so there may be a lot of things he cannot access until after things are completely cleared up legally. In the mean time, he can go to soup kitchens and the like for a meal.
My homeless blog takes the position that an individual's agency is incredibly important. A lot of charity is done in a really harmful manner. I am not the only person to have that idea. I recently tripped across a book titled "Toxic Charity." So I try like hell to blog about what a person can access without having to sell their soul, lose their dignity, give up their agency and so on. That limits what is available, but I think it preserves things that really matter.
Best of luck.
Re: Ask HN: Just got an innocent man out of prison. What now?
#66I read the articles a bit, but I didn't find any information on who the real killer was. Are there any leads?
Yes, but I can't talk about them because it's part of an active investigation.
Re: Ask HN: Just got an innocent man out of prison. What now?
#67[deleted]
Re: Ask HN: Just got an innocent man out of prison. What now?
#68Earlier quoted context omitted.
What did you find unfair about the original piece? I haven't seen it but I had assumed it would be relatively favorable if Dateline had chosen to publicize the case 15 years after the murder and 6 years after the conviction.
The Dateline piece came out right after Ray's conviction. I just happened to see it 5 years later. It portrayed him as a craven killer who was brought to justice only through the Herculean efforts of police and prosecutors who wouldn't let the absence of any physical evidence stop them from getting a conviction.
Goddamn that's scary that this man's exoneration depended on a chance viewing of Dateline...Props to you...my initial reaction to this post (I hadn't seen your other appeals to HN) were that this sounded too good to be true, but even the stories and accounts about Mr. Jennings that were pro-status-quo were alarmingly flimsy.
I don't have faith that the justice system will naturally get things right, but I do have a general faith that the bureaucracy and motivations of the system would prevent such a conviction from ever happening in the current day...e.g. DA's not wanting to screw up their conviction rate by bringing such a weak case to trial. My faith is pretty shaken now...if this is the kind of case that can make its way to a murder conviction and rejection of review by the state Supreme Court, it most definitely leaves me unsettled about all the kinds of cases that don't receive media attention.
This frequently posted video ("Don't talk to police") now looks much more naive than cynical: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wXkI4t7nuc
Re: Ask HN: Just got an innocent man out of prison. What now?
#69From the sounds of it the man is former military and has been mistreated by the justice system. I presume his "record" will soon be clean.
We should find this man a job inside the criminal justice system. Would he consider working in a police department?