Post by DHA Managing Director, Eric Volz
This past April I gave a lecture at the 2011 International Innocence Network Conference, and brought along my dear friend, Sarah Shroud.
At the time, Sarah had been recently freed from an Iranian prison where she had been held hostage for 14 months. Though released, her fiance, Shane Bauer, and dear friend, Josh Fattal remained in prison in Iran. We took this photo along with other exonerees who were at one time wrongfully imprisoned in high profile, international cases: José Antonio Zuñiga (México), Ron Dalton (Canada) and Toshikazu Sugaya (Japan). We held our arms open, holding a place for both Shane and Josh.
On September 21st, Shane and Josh, “the Hikers”, were freed. It was a beautiful moment to see their families reunited after almost two years of being wrongfully detained by the Iranian regime.
This past weekend, I was able to attend a celebration for the families and friends of Sarah, Shane and Josh. Here we are, with our arms around them – just as we had imagined months prior.
Welcome home, guys.