Terrol Swift

On January 17, 2012, Terrill Swift was released from prison for being wrongfully convicted of rape and murder. On February 14, nearly one month later the same man came to Deerfield High School to share his story with a group of teen aged students. His story was not only compelling and inspiring, but it also taught me that sadly our rights must be fought for. Terrill's story told me that we can't take our every day virtues for granted, especially our rights. The whole point of Terrill's visit was to teach us about how important it is to know what your rights are because when your in the heat of the moment like Terrill was, you have to know that if you want an attorney with you that you have the right for that and no police officer can take that away from you. Terrill wasn't wrongfully convicted because he was stupid and there was certainly not a lot he could do about the situation/ This man was set up by the Chicago Police because when theres a murder/rape on their table, they have to arrest somebody and in this case that somebody was Terrill. Most 17 year-old boys in Terrill's position wouldn't know what to do or how to act. In Terrill's mind he was cooperating to help find a murderer, but in actuallity he was helping convict himself and this was made possible because his rights were taken away and he had to do as the police ordered. I wish i had the skills to be an attorney beacuse this story taught me how easily a mans life can be taken away. Sadly, I just don't see my future going in that direction.