Presumed Guilty

I always thought in the United States, you were innocent until proven wrong;
I look back now on my trial, where I sure did not belong!
But the detectives were under pressure, to solve the murder case real quickly;
It had to do with a coming election, so they pinned the rap on me!
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Their evidence was very circumstantial, but they planted incriminating dupes; They knew were totally unfounded, but that threw the jury for a loop!
Even though I was completely innocent, the verdict “Guilty” be;
A lifetime then in prison, is what they sentenced me!
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I languished in my jail cell, for twenty-five long years;
A victim of the system, that a black man always fears!
Then came a new discovery, DNA, the epitome of tests;
That could prove a person’s innocence, so superior to all the rest!
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It took not long to find I wasn’t guilty, but a quarter century of my life;
I had spent incarcerated, away from my children and my wife!
They gave me two million dollars, for my suffering and my pain;
But they robbed me of one-third, of this life I lived in vain!
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                         The gavel dropped
                     He is guilty as charged
                         Justice travesty