Bill Moyers is back on television, and that’s a very good thing. On a recent episode of his new TV show, he talked with Jerry Miller, the 200th person exonerated by postconviction DNA testing about clearing his name. Here’s his opening statement for that particular episode:

You probably know America’s the World leader in putting people behind bars. We send them up the river at least five times the rate of other industrialized nations. At the end of 2005, there was a record 2.2 million people in our prisons and jails. Now, there is one less. And that’s especially good news because Jerry Miller shouldn’t have been in prison in the first place. He was 22 when police arrested him. It was a case of mistaken identity. But Jerry Miller spent 25 years locked up before DNA proved his innocence. He became the 200th person exonerated through DNA evidence thanks to the organization known as Innocence Project. Some of those narrowly escaped the death penalty, but that’s another story. Right now, it’s time to celebrate one man’s liberation.

Click here to see the video.

This is actually my main reason why I’m opposed to the death penalty. It’s not because it’s a cruel inhumane punishment. It’s because the American justice system is not always fair, and I don’t want any innocent person executed. Politics and justice should be two separate issues, but unfortunately they are often intermingled together like two congenial twins. I don’t expect any of that to ever change during my lifetime.

For information about this topic, go to Innocence Project.org.