There is a story out just days ago by the Marshall Project, a Nonprofit journalism about the criminal justice system. They reported on Jules Letemps, an Orlando immigrant who recently exonerated after he served 27 years behind prison bars. But now, instead of Letemps receiving a compensation for the wrongful conviction, the Department of Homeland security has taken action to deport him to his native country, Haiti. Here’s portion of what the Marshall Project reported:
”Jules Letemps thought he would be celebrating. On October 14, 2016, he was exonerated of the 1989 rape of a woman in Orlando, Florida, after serving 27 years in prison. Letemps, now 53, had dreamed of this day: of seeing the ocean, attending Baptist church with his mother, and reconnecting with his extended family and three children. Most importantly, he could finally prove that he was innocent.
But Letemps is not a U.S. citizen. And instead of being freed, he was transferred to immigration detention because of a 30-year-old drug conviction. He now resides at the Glades County Detention Center, a rural Florida facility, facing deportation to Haiti, a country he left when he was 17 years old.
Letemps came to Florida in 1981 on “humanitarian parole,” a temporary status granted to those fleeing their country for urgent humanitarian reasons. He had fled Haiti on a boat with his father and sister, among thousands of Haitians who emigrated due to political unrest and economic turmoil. Immigration officials revoked his parole after he was convicted of the rape, and planned to try and deport him after he served his sentence. Cleared of the sexual assault, Letemps thought his problems were over. ”
source: The Marshall Project
