Defending the Wrongly Accused

Randall Mills was convicted in January 2000 for penile rape, sexual assault of a child, distribution of marijuana to a minor. On March 15, 1999, a 12 year old girl was caught sneaking out of her apartment in Lewisburg, Tennessee. She told her older sister that she had gone to smoke marijuana with Mills, in which he raped her afterwards. Mills was later convicted based on her statement. Mills was exonerated on April 4, 2014. The penile rape charges were dropped in January 2011 after a DNA test resulted in the exclusion of Mills. The judge would not drop the charges for sexual assault and drug possession because Mills admitted to fondling the girl and penetrating her with his finger. In February, a notice of appeal was filed by Mills and in May 2011, the Innocence Project made an agreement with Mills in which he did not admit guilt, but would register as a sex offender. Randall Mills's case with the Innocence Project relates to the Crucible because Mills was accused and convicted of such heinous events without evidence to be proven guilty, while John Proctor, Elizabeth Proctor, and other good people of Salem were accused of conjuring the Devil and hanged without evidence to be proven guilty as well. The connection between the Crucible and Randall Mills's case suggests being wrongfully accused without evidence is a problem that The Innocence Project believes persists in America today.

(Ethos) Randall Mills did not rape the 12 year old girl that accused him of such acts. At the time there was no proof that the sperm found in the 12 year old's underwear was Mills's. Also, "Sharon Jenkins, a DNA analyst for the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, testified that she did not find any sperm on the vaginal swabs from the rape kit...". This also proves the lack of evidence for the conviction.

(Pathos) If your child was in this position, would you feel a need for justice for the wrongly accused? If my child had been convicted without evidence, I would do everything in my power to have my child exonerated, Randall Willis did not commit the act of rape towards this 12 year old girl. Mills was accused of rape after a statement was made by the young girl, "Mills’s conviction was based on CM’s testimony, who gave inconsistent statements about the attack". Also, after sperm was found in the young girl's underwear, a DNA analyst claimed that "Mills couldn't be excluded as the source". But in the later years, DNA shows that Mills actually was excluded. Since the statements given by the young girl were inconsistent, and there was proof that the sperm was not Mills's, the client should be exonerated.

(Logos) In 2005, Mills began working with the Innocence Project and successfully partitioned for DNA testing. In May 2010, a hearing was held, and a DNA expert testified that the DNA was did not belong to Mills, and he was excluded. "The expert further testified that Jenkins, the state’s expert at Mills’s trial, had given incorrect testimony when she said that her testing could not exclude Mills as the source of the sperm found on the victim’s underwear". In 2012, Mills was released under the condition that he register with the state of Tennessee as a sex offender. On April 4, 2014, Randall Mills was exonerated when all charges were dropped.

America's society is full of strong believers of accusation without evidence. As citizens of America, we need to take a stand against the system. I believe the conviction of the wrongfully accused is a result of the carelessness of America's government. In order to prevent this problem from taking place in the future, we as a society should support our fellow citizens who are being incriminated. We need to take a stand; demand the evidence. Doing so would help minimize this reoccurring problem. All American citizens are supposedly INNOCENT until PROVEN guilty, but our government isn't staying true to this. The wrongfully accused deserve justice.

Works Cited

"Randall Mills - National Registry of Exonerations." Randall Mills - National Registry of Exonerations. Web. 24 May 2016.

"Tennessee Man Exonerated of Rape after Serving 11 Years - Innocence Project." Innocence Project RSS. 07 Apr. 2014. Web. 24 May 2016.