Attorney Dorothy Budd, Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins and three formerly imprisoned men exonerated of crimes they did not commit spoke to a standing-room-only crowd at the Dallas Holocaust Museum/Center for Education and Tolerance about justice, injustice and forgiveness on Sept. 9.

More than 125 people attended the evening event, part of the Museum’s new Upstander Speaker Series which brings speakers from around the globe to discuss modern-day issues of tolerance and human rights. The Rev. Dorothy Budd, author of "Tested: How Twelve Wrongly Imprisoned Men Held Onto Hope," was the second speaker in the 2014 series. Harry Wu, author and former Chinese labor camp prisoner, will be the series’ third speaker on Dec. 4.

Ms. Budd, a former child sex crimes prosecutor turned Episcopal deacon of the Church of the Incarnation, spoke briefly about her mission in writing her book about local men who spent decades wrongfully imprisoned but quickly relinquished the floor to the men themselves. Each told harrowing stories of bullying police, inept lawyers and grieving family members trapped in a justice system that was unjust.

Despite the years taken from them, none of the men expressed anger. Faith and forgiveness were the themes of the evening.

Billy Smith spent almost 20 years in prison, convicted by eyewitness testimony for rape despite having an alibi. He remembered the morning he was arrested – bright and beautiful -- like it was yesterday.

“I had never seen a morning like that before, and I have never seen a morning like that since to this day,” he told the audience.

Christopher Scott was wrongly imprisoned for capital murder for 12 years, even though he did not match the shooter’s description, had no gunshot residue on him and no physical evidence linked him to the crime. During his trial, prosecutors had to interview three jury panels before they finally found twelve people who said they would consider sentencing a person to life in prison without any physical evidence.

Richard Miles spent 15 years in prison for murder and attempted murder. He spoke of a sadness more for his parents than for himself. As he was physically imprisoned, his parents were emotionally and spiritually behind bars. His father died just months before he was released.

“I wasn’t allowed to go to my father’s funeral so it wasn’t until the Sunday after the funeral when it really hit me. I used to write my mom and dad every Sunday,” Mr. Miles said in the book. “I would listen to gospel music, sit down with my cup of coffee, and start my letter with ‘Dear Mom and Dad.’ That’s when it hit me.”

Mr. Watkins, who wrote the foreword of Ms. Budd’s book, also spoke briefly about his own time under scrutiny and his interest in exoneration cases. Mr. Watkins created the Conviction Integrity Unit of the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office in 2007 to review and re-investigate legitimate post-conviction claims of innocence.