A testament to how long I have been at this reporting thing: I covered the Chad Campbell case when he murdered Cynthia Lewis and Curtis Rizzo in 1990.

It’s why I am having a hard time wrapping my head around him being granted parole last month, after spending 36 years incarcerated. It’s also why I have a hard time understanding why several other people whose trials I covered who were convicted of killing people are walking around free today.

I could list them, but I don’t want to give them specific attention, or praise for rehabilitation; suffice it to say that they have proven to be the rule, instead of the exception. Just about every single person whose murder conviction I’ve written about over the past 40 years has been paroled.

Many have spent decades in prison, while some........

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