The Long Rebound for Darrell Williams

Article here. Excerpt:

'His dream survives even now, even after everything that has happened, even after all the indignities he has endured. In the dream, he rises in his graduation gown, cloaked in the black and orange of the school he loves. An announcer intones the names, his voice reverberating in a packed auditorium. One after another, the graduates clutch the dean’s hand and grasp their diplomas. On this day, Darrell Williams is just another student, a little taller than most, but just another face in a sea of thousands. He moves the tassel from one side of his mortarboard to the other. And he smiles his big smile. The nightmare is over. His honor is restored. He is free.

It is true he is no longer a felon, no longer a convicted sex offender. No longer is he required to register with police anywhere he calls home. No longer is he restricted from hanging out in a public park. No longer is he forced to take a test to measure his chances for recidivism—that is, for again committing the kind of sexual assault he has insisted from day one he never committed in the first place.'