Wrongfully Imprisoned, Ex-Con Preaches Message of Forgiveness

Darryl Burton spent 24 years in prison for a crime he didn't commit.

Although he now preaches messages of hope and forgiveness, there was a time he was unable to offer either. 

"I had neither one. I struggled with hope because I was in a hopeless situation, and I really wasn't a forgiving person," explained Burton, who is a congregational care pastor at United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, Kansas.

"I had gotten away from the Church until I had this unfortunate experience of spending 2 1/2 decades in prison as an innocent man," Burton told The Kansas City Star.

Burton was convicted of the murder of a St. Louis man in 1984. In 2008, he was released after courts found his prosecution had been constitutionally flawed. 

While in prison, Burton said he became an "equal opportunity hater." He hated judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys and witnesses -- associating them all with what had been done to him. 

"I was stuck and locked in that hate for many, many years," he said. "I couldn't get beyond that."

But when someone encouraged him to read the Bible he remembered something his grandmother had once told him.

"She said, 'Boy, one of these days you're going to need Jesus, and I hope you remember to call on Him,'" Burton said.

He did call on Him and what he got in return was a lesson on loving, praying for those who persecute you and forgiving your enemies. Burton said that transformation set him free long before the courts did.

"I didn't believe in miracles," he said. "But then I became one."