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[This edited version of the report has been prepared by Dr Robert N Moles]

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On 30 April 2007 the Times Recorder reported “Ex-cons honor wrongly convicted man”. It said that two ex-convicts hope the memory of a man who struggled to adjust after spending 26 years in prison for a crime he didn't commit can help them usher newly released prisoners successfully back into society. The Timothy Howard Foundation will sponsor support groups and mentoring programs where ex-offenders help newly released prisoners with their re-entry into the Columbus community, said Khalil Osiris, one of the foundation's co-founders.

Osiris and fellow founder Dawn Chodorow both earned college degrees while serving 15 years in prison but said that life outside of prison proved to be a challenge, with few resources to help them adjust. Howard spent 26 years in prison before being cleared in the shooting death of a guard during a bank robbery in Columbus. He was released in 2003 based on the evidence that was not available to defense attorneys in his 1977 trial and subsequently received $2.5 million from the state to settle his wrongful imprisonment suit.

Another man, Gary James, convicted in the same crime as Howard then subsequently freed, still has a financial claim pending at the Ohio Court of Claims. Despite the money, Howard struggled to adapt to life outside of prison. He suffered a heart attack in March and died a few days later at the age of 53. "Tim's life has become something of a metaphor for the fact that we have to do something more than lock people in a prison and then just let them out of prison, " Osiris said.

Howard and Osiris met at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility near Lucasville when both were prisoners there in the late 1970s. "Tim had every reason to be negative, but one of the extraordinary things is he was such a nice guy," Osiris said. "When he talked, you became convinced of his innocence." Osiris and Chodorow are hosting a memorial for Howard this summer and hope their program catches on so that it can spread statewide.

30 April 2007 Times Recorder “Ex-cons honor wrongly convicted man” Columbus (AP)

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