NaPoWriMo 2018 - Day 20

As they say "a day late and a dollar short." I actually wrote this poem on time yesterday but I wasn't sure about it and didn't publish it and well now it's late and I'm a poem behind . . . for now.

Today's prompt was to write a poem that in some way incorporates rebellion. My mind sprang forth with many ideas at once. But which to write? I sort of liked the idea of writing about Ella Enchanted but that seems to easy. It was also suggested that we might right a poem in which we rebel against ourselves.

A noose tattooed around his neck
Though in jail
He was the last of the four men convicted
"It's to remind me that I'm still here."
He had plead guilty to a crime for which he was innocent
Told that was the only way he would live.
He died later
In jail.
Never exonerated of a crime
He didn't commit.
The most rebellious thing he could do
Was live.

Another of the men convicted beside him
Sat on death row for a decade plus
Eventually he was put to death
For a crime he insisted he didn't commit.
Lawyers tried hard to exonerate him
Or at the very least
Get his sentence changed
And though they worked hard
Even their last ditch efforts
Failed.
The most rebellious thing he could do
Was maintain his innocence.

What had happened you see
was that the justice system had failed.
A sheriff deputy and a DA
Were far too concerned
With closing the case
They found some guys with a background
And pinned it on them
With little material evidence
And a whole lot of testimony
That left something to be desired.
The most rebellious thing they could do
Was not do their jobs by the book.

There were many others
Lawyers, detectives, journalists
Who came to town
Looking for answers
Wherever they could be found.
They paid out of pocket for DNA testing
To find the answers they were questing.
The most rebellious thing they could do
Was leave no stone unturned.

Can people really be laid to rest -
Can their families really have peace -
If the people convicted
Seem, at least in this case to have their hands clean?

Those three teens lie underground
Will the truth ever be found?
Do their spirits haunt
Some guilty soul?
Perhaps we will never know.
Do their spirits roam
That sad lake
And question if this was a big mistake?
The most rebellious thing those spirits could do
Is whisper the truth to me or you.