“The system made a mistake.”

That’s how easily the wrongful imprisonment of a Black man who lost 40 years of his life is easily dismissed, not just in North Carolina, but all over the United States of America.

Joseph Sledge, convicted in 1976 of the stabbing deaths of a mother and daughter, went into prison at the age of 30, and now at 70 years old, he says all he wants to do is sleep in a real bed and go swimming.

A three-judge panel declared Sledge innocent after DNA testimony cleared him and paved the way to his freedom. His hair, DNA, nor his fingerprints matched any of those collected during the trial. Nothing matched, not even witness testimony after a key jailhouse informant admitted he lied in order to gain leniency in his own case for lying under oath. As a matter of information, Sledge had a prior conviction. He was serving four years for larceny when he escaped from a prison work farm. The day after, the bodies of Josephine Davis, aged 74, and her 57-year old daughter, Aileen were found in their home.

It could have been worse, of course. Sledge could have spent what was left of the rest of his life in prison over a crime he did not commit. All the district attorney, who was not the D.A. at the time, said was “The system made a mistake.” No, it wasn’t “the system.” It was the people involved in it and the strange, but oh so expected, way that they interpret laws one way for whites and another way for Black people.

Last seen, Sledge was headed to Savannah, Georgia, to live with a brother, sleep in a real bed and go swimming.

Unlike the typical “Shawshank Redemption” miscarriages of justice, Black men and women have the added problems associated with racism, as well as police misconduct and coercing false testimony just to be rid of a case which may not otherwise be resolved. But never say “racism,” you are supposed to use the codified words JUDICIAL MISCONDUCT instead.That is more palatable for those who are sensitized to the overtly and covertly obvious.

Guilty or no, false testimony is supposed to be a ‘no-no’ in the judicial systems.

It wasn’t that long ago that another Black man by the name of Troy Davis was self-righteously murdered by the State of Georgia to avenge the killing of a Savannah police officer, even though (a) There was no murder weapon found; (b) There was no DNA evidence whatsoever to connect him to the murder; and (c) seven of nine witnesses recanted their testimony and stated they were coerced by the police. One of the two who did not recant is the man who was actually last seen with the murder weapon in his hand before the cop was shot. Davis maintained his innocence to the end and only time will exonerate him, even though it will be post-mortem.

In the meantime, the system has made hundreds of thousands of these kinds of “mistakes” over the past two or three centuries, and a great deal of them have been made at the expense of Black people and their families. The system is badly in need of reform, we are still living under laws that undervalue or devalue the lives of its African American citizens in every state in the nation.

Only time will tell the quality of life Sledge will have after going into the system a young man and coming out old enough to have retired five years ago, but we wish him the best.

If you have any information about false testimony, falsified evidence, or wrongful convictions of other cases, get in touch with The Innocence Project. So far, 325 wrongfully convicted persons have been released under The Project; and if America’s history is any indication, there are hundreds more left to go.