Gerrard Kaonga
Wayne Burgess has spoken out about returning to civilian life and his upcoming plans after being wrongly imprisoned for over two decades.
Being in prison for a crime you didn’t commit, sounds like the stuff of nightmares.
Wayne Burgess, now 61, has been living that nightmare for over 24 years after he was sent to jail in 1999.
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At the time, he was found guilty of murdering his girlfriend’s 16-month old daughter, Nakeavia, in Pulaski, Tennessee.
However, the testimony from the medical examiner, Charles Harlan, was discredited and he also claimed that his signed confession was coerced out of him by police. Burgess said they encouraged him to sign it as a 'routine procedure'.
Medical professionals on appeal have argued that it was a crime Burgess could not have committed.
Chief medical examiner Dr Adele Lewis said: “It is more likely that the child sustained the lethal injury hours or even days before she arrived at hospital.”
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This has meant it was ‘physiologically impossible’ for Nakeavia to have internally bled so quickly after Wayne allegedly hit her in the stomach, according to a review of the child’s autopsy.
"The order is clear - not only he didn't do it - it was impossible he did it," his lawyer, John Morris, added.
Burgess walked out of prison in May last year and reunited with his family.
But if you had been absent from the wider population for over 20 years, what do you do? How do you adjust to a life and world that is vastly different than the one you left in 1999?
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Speaking to News Channel 5, Burgess explained that he is very much aware of how much the world has changed.
Relishing in his freedom and now living with his family, he said it is like he has been born into a ‘brand new world’.
“Everything has changed since I went in and came out like a newborn baby out in the world,” Burgess admitted.
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Despite the wrongful conviction, he also seems to have a very positive attitude about his future.
“A lot of people would have animosity, but not me. It’s something you have to go through," Burgess said.
“I go to school in the fall at MTSU. [I] just need help with tuition. I’m a spiritual guy, and his [God’s] voice says ‘you go on and I’ll take care of the rest’.”
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His family have since set up a GoFundMe in hopes of raising money so that he can start his life again.
In addition to this, his lawyers are seeking compensation from the state fund for people who have been wrongly imprisoned.