Kirk Noble Bloodsworth, 47, was the first prisoner to be exonerated by DNA in a capital crime. The former Marine was wrongly convicted twice in Baltimore County of killing and raping a 9-year-old girl because five witnesses, two of whom were 10 years old or younger, identified him as the person seen last with the girl.
Bloodsworth?s mother died three months before he was cleared. He was released from prison June 28, 1993, and has since traveled the world telling his story. He will be speaking at McDaniel College on Thursday.
What?s the first thing you did when you got out?
I had crab cakes, crab balls, crab soup, soft crabs, crab dip. I really crabbed it up. Had a few beers, too. Well, maybe more than a few. But that was short-lived. People thought DNA was some sort of get-out-of jail-free card.
What do you tell people on your speaking tours?
We just really need to elevate ourselves and change some of these things that caused what happened to me. And the endgame is if it happened to me, it can happen to anyone in the state. I?m so fearful for someone like yourself because it can happen at a finger point.
Did your time inside give you a different view of inmates?
A lot of these men had tough lives ? and that doesn?t excuse them from the crimes they committed ? but certainly I think they were trying to gain some sort of respect and put it together, for what it was worth.
Are you angry at the people who prosecuted, convicted or sentenced you?
I have buried the hatchet, so to speak. I didn?t want this to be my only legacy in life. No matter how much I beat and stomp my feet, what they did will always be what they did.
