Terrill Swift: Take 2

Terrill Swift is the most recent man to be exonerated from the State of Illinois. In 1994 Terrill Swift, along with his other co defendants, falsely confessed to a crime in which they did not commit. As a seventeen year old adolescent, Swift signed away what he thought was a way home, but ended up becoming his false confession to rape and murder. For about seventeen years, Terrill Swift was living in Illinois prisons for a crime that he did not commit. As Swift told his story, I could sense that many of my classmates and I felt feelings of disappointment and discomfort with our legal system. Swift told us that false confessions are not a rare case, but that they actually occur quite often. Due to pressure, manipulation, and sometimes harassment, many people confess to crimes that they did not commit.
Terrill Swift emphasized that the most important lesson for all of us to learn from his story is that we must not blindly follow instructions. Swift signed a confession, when he actually thought that it was a consent to go home. Since he did not read every part of what he was saying, Terrill Swift signed over his life with a confession of a crime that he did not commit. When my classmates and I entered the lecture room for Swift's presentation, we all signed in with our names, Emails, and signatures. However, since most of us assumed that the sheet was merely an attendance sheet, we all blindly signed away a confession toward academic dishonesty. We learned that the caption above our signatures actually wrote that we all cheated on our last paper. This activity went to emphasize Swift's message to question instructions, and to never blindly follow those instructions.
Overall, I found Terrill Swift's presentation to not only be informative, but it allowed me to take a look at my life. Swift, now thirty four years old, spent nearly half of his life in prison. His story, gave me a different perspective on life, and it showed me to always be careful with authority. Above all, Swift emphasized that we all know our rights, and that we are never put down by others unfairly.