This Juneteenth, a Kansas City, Kansas, man who was incarcerated for 25 years is finally free

Brian Betts, 46, says he was wrongfully convicted thanks to disgraced former KCKPD Detective Roger Golubski. Today Betts will call for new leadership of the local criminal justice system.
Getting stuck in traffic? He smiles. Waiting in line at the grocery store? He smiles. Taking out the garbage for his mom? He smiles.

Brian Betts, just two weeks out of prison after serving 25 years for a crime he says he didn’t commit, relishes the things that frustrate the rest of us.

After a quarter century of gray captivity — the daily humiliations of chains around his hands and feet, the torture of seeing his family leave after their regular visits to the prison — freedom for Betts is about the technicolor choices we rarely notice. Clothes, food, where to drive. He calls those the small, “beautiful joy” of freedom.