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Outlook

Factual: Life Stories

True stories of ordinary people and the extraordinary events that have shaped their lives.

Outlook: Outlook

03/11/2009

BBC World Service - Outlook, Outlook

14 years on death row; 25th anniversary of anti-Sikh riots in India.

John Thompson

John Thompson spent 14 years on death row in Louisiana's notorious Angola State Penitentiary. He'd been convicted of first degree murder and an attempted carjacking.  He lived through six execution dates, but just thirty days before the seventh, new DNA evidence came to light which led to him being completely cleared and eventually released. Today John runs an organisation which helps other exonerated people re-adjust to life on the outside after being wrongly convicted. He tells Matthew about life on death row.

Anti-Sikh Riots - 25 years on

Its twenty five years since the Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her Sikh body guards. In the days that followed Mrs.Ghandi's killing, violence towards India's Sikh community flared up. Nearly 3,000 Sikhs died in a wave of killing which centred on the capital Delhi but also hit other parts of the country. Outlook talks to a Sikh who we're calling Harpal, because he prefers to keep his real name secret. 25 years ago he was a young boy living in Delhi and saw his brother murdered by an angry mob. We also hear from a British born Sikh Amardeep  talkiong about the lasting effects of those riots on her family.

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