After Decades of Injustice, A Battle for Home: The Saga of David Ranta

Imagine, if you will, losing more than two decades of your life to a crime you didn't commit. That's the staggering reality David Ranta faced, spending 23 long years behind bars for a murder conviction that was, in truth, based on perjured testimony and police misconduct. He was finally exonerated, a free man again, in 2013. A moment of triumph, certainly, a chance to rebuild a life that had been so cruelly stolen. You'd think the worst was over, wouldn't you?

But sometimes, it seems, the universe has a way of throwing one more curveball, even after you've endured a lifetime of foul play. For Ranta, that curveball came in the form of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, which, inexplicably, decided to pursue his deportation to Israel. Now, you might be wondering, why Israel? Ranta, you see, was born there. But he had arrived in the United States as a child, building his entire adult life here – marrying, raising a family, putting down roots that ran deep into American soil. He has, for all intents and purposes, no ties left to Israel.

ICE's rationale? A decades-old, relatively minor marijuana possession conviction from 1976, and, unbelievably, the very murder conviction that had been overturned. It almost beggars belief, doesn't it? As if spending 23 years wrongly imprisoned wasn't enough, the system seemed determined to punish him further, perhaps for crimes he simply didn't commit or for an old misdemeanor long past.

Thankfully, justice, for once, had a voice in the higher courts. Federal appeals courts have repeatedly stepped in, issuing orders that block ICE from sending Ranta away. These judges, clearly seeing the profound injustice at play, have slammed ICE's actions as