According to Cleveland.com, 33 Ohio residents were exonerated at least 10 years after being wrongly convicted and unjustly locked behind bars, half of which took place in Cuyahoga County. These innocent men and women have collectively served more than 600 years in prison for crimes that they did not commit.

Evin King’s case is particularly concerning, as detailed by another Cleveland.com article. This Cleveland resident spent 23 years behind bars for a murder conviction that was dropped last year due to the fact that Cleveland police and Cuyahoga County forensic investigators fabricated evidence to pin the crime on King. Blaming a heinous crime on an easy target, Cleveland detectives and former Coroner’s Office employees Robert Challener and Kay May robbed the innocent King of his reputation, dignity and more than two decades of his life.

Despite their blatant assault on human dignity, wrongful convictions are one of many human rights violations that do not receive enough public attention. We have a responsibility to these innocent men and women who are thrown behind bars on baseless convictions.

One simple way to take action is to exercise our civic duty to vote. While other positions are often deemed more important, such as state representatives or state senators, county prosecutors play a crucial role in overturning wrongful convictions and, more importantly, preventing them from happening in the first place.

In light of the recent election, we must remember to remain cognizant of our responsibility to be informed voters, as our decisions directly impact people like Evin King, whose human dignity was trampled on by our so-called “justice” system.

–  The Editorial Staff