One of the most difficult things for those falsely accused or falsely convicted is to move on with their lives when the specter of their alleged wrongdoing follows them beyond any sort of legal win.
One way states can alleviate some of the difficulty for the wrongly convicted is to issues a certificate of innocence to say, clearly, that this person did not do the crime of which they were accused. For Eric Blackmon, whose 2002 murder conviction was vacated by a federal court, which also ordered that he be released from prison, that final proof that he was innocent now eludes him. The Cook County State’s Attorney dropped charges against Blackmon last January, but it now refuses to issue him a certificate of innocence, claiming that despite the evidence and the federal court ruling, it still believes Blackmon is a murderer.
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