Exonerated Man Adjusts to Life on the Outside

ALEX CHADWICK, host:

This is DAY TO DAY. I'm Alex Chadwick.

MADELEINE BRAND, host:

And I'm Madeleine Brand.

In a few minutes, we'll hear from someone representing big time presidential campaign contributors: college professors.

CHADWICK: First, 25 years ago Jerry Miller was convicted of rape and sent to prison, and this past April he was exonerated by DNA evidence. We spoke to him right afterwards.

Mr. JERRY MILLER: I have been - I have been angry, you know. But at one point I had to come to realization that if I did not improve myself and become positive in this negative situation, I could not do anything to help myself.

BRAND: We wanted to check back in with Miller to see how his new life as a free man has been going over the last three months. And so we sent Chicago Public Radio's Diantha Parker out to pay him a visit.

Mr. MILLER: Hello.

DIANTHA PARKER: Hey there.

Mr. MILLER: Who's in there?

PARKER: Diantha.

Jerry Miller is one of the nicest people you will never be able to make plans with. Our meeting was the result of more than six weeks of phone tag and rescheduled dates, but that's because until recently he was working two jobs, usually starting at the crack of dawn.

(Soundbite of laughter)

PARKER: We met at his cousin Karen Miller's house in Riverdale, a few miles south of Chicago. Jerry's lived here with Karen since he got out of jail last year. But until this March he was still living with the very restrictive rules that a paroled rapist has to follow.

Mr. MILLER: Being classified as a sex offender, you know, it put me in a box. First of all, you know, I couldn't come and go. I had to be told when to leave and when to come back.

PARKER: He wore an electronic monitoring bracelet, had a curfew and could only travel a certain number of miles to work. One of the reasons Karen took him in was that she was one of the only family members who didn't have kids in the house. Under the rules of his parole, Jerry was forbidden to be around children.

Mr. MILLER: Later I learned that they should 1everybody like that was a pedophile. And that in itself was hard, you know, to know that they think this about you.

PARKER: After his exoneration, all of those rules vanished, at least on paper. But Jerry still finds them hard to shake, especially when his nieces and nephews come over.

Mr. MILLER: I've actually forgot that I'm not on parole, and they come over and I'll be like, oh man, you know, stressed out. Is the parole officer going to come back?

PARKER: But he's been having these feelings less and less as more family comes by to visit. And on this afternoon his cousin Karen can't even sit down because she and relatives are cooking for a giant picnic later - fried chicken, catfish and spaghetti with meat sauce.

Ms. MILLER: Sausages.

Unidentified Woman: #1: We do everything together now.

Ms. MILLER: And we always get together on holidays. Now we get together just because.

Unidentified Woman #1: Just because it's (unintelligible)

PARKER: Jerry also works for Karen, who has her own business driving a bus for disabled people. He's also been working in a barbecue restaurant Karen's friend owns.

Mr. MILLER: I know how to cook, but so many people know how to cook better than me (unintelligible) We made asparagus a couple of days ago, rinsed it off real good and then put it in a skillet with a little butter.

PARKER: It's just asparagus, but imagine if you'd been waiting to do that for 25 years. Jerry's finally enjoying a lot of very simple things he's been looking forward to. That's not to say the transition has been easy. His cousin Karen has been helping him literally every step of the way.

Ms. MILLER: Who's going to teach you how to use a cell phone, cash stations, gas station? Who's going tell you to slow down eating because they're used to eating so fast in prison, he's almost choked like three or four times? Who's going to tell you you can close your eyes when you go in the shower?

PARKER: For someone who's been on guard for so many years, Jerry is a very calm and reflective person. He says he let go of his anger early on and got by in prison by preparing for life outside. He did this in part by watching television: Food Network, Discovery, the Learning Channel.

Mr. MILLER: I love watching business news because the whole plan was eventually I would be able to prove myself innocent and I would have to understand what to do.

PARKER: But getting out and meeting people is another thing altogether. Karen started by working on Jerry's appearance. Remember, this is a man who came of age in a Superfly era. She made him throw out his leather jacket from the Carter administration. She gave him a crash course in talking to modern women, and was the shoulder he cried on when he got his heart broken for the first time - at 48.

Jerry's got a lot of new choices to face and Karen says she'll continue to be there for him. But she admits that some of his decisions are a little harder to take than others.

Ms. MILLER: He loves Sade. He loves Sade. He loves Sade so much I hate her now.

(Soundbite of music)

PARKER: For NPR News, I'm Diantha Parker.

(Soundbite of song, "Your Love is King")

SADE (Singer): Your love is king, crown you with my heart, your love is king, never need to part, your kisses ring, round and round and round my head, touching the very part of me... Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.