Wrongly accused man starts his freshman year at GWU after ten years’s imprisonment
Posted by: Molly Redden in News, Vox Populi, tags: Famous Freshman, George Washington University, Mario Rocha
Mario Rocha at GWU
A lot of students have to overcome adversity in order to get to college, but Mario Rocha, who is about to complete his first semester at George Washington University, pretty much has all other students beat: prior to arriving on GWU’s campus, the 30-year-old freshman spent 10 years in prison, having been wrongfully convicted of first-degree murder.
In his Washington Post profile of Rocha, Daniel De Vise writes that Rocha was incarcerated for the murder of Martin Aceves, who shot to death at a Los Angeles house party in 1996, when he was 16 years old. Four years ago, he was found to have been wrongfully convicted. He was tried as an adult and sentenced to 35 years imprisonment.
In the juvenile detention center where he was incarcerated, he began creative writing. He drew the attention of a nun, Sister Janet Harris, who found an attorney to advocate for his release. De Vise writes that Rocha stayed incredibly positive during an excruciatingly slow fight for his release—at one point consoling the attorneys who were prepared to console him when they experienced another setback in court.
After he was released, Rocha was the subject of a lauded documentary, “Mario’s Story.” He currently “is taking courses in physical geography, women’s studies, weight training and the media, along with Introduction to Criminal Justice, a subject to which he presumably needs no introduction.”
Rocha is attending GWU on a scholarship which he accepted with some reluctance.
Not to be flippant, but that must have been one hell of an admissions essay.
Photo from the GW Hatchet
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Dear Vox,
He “excepted” the scholarship? Wow.
<3 Tim
Dear Hoya,
Learn to blog
<3 @Tim
Tim’s right, that was pretty egregious. Edited.
Wow, I am sure glad that Mario has had an opportunity to change his life and become a productive member of society. Where is Martin Aceves now…oh yeah wait he is still dead. Never had a chance to live due to the fact that Mario and the people he associated with shot and killed him. What a shame this criminal system. Study your little criminal justice class so one day you can defend the other “homies” who get locked up for murder.
@ Tony
You are an idiot. Obviously you can’t grasp the concept of EXONERATION….it is WRONGFUL IMPRISONMENT. Wrongful as in not right or righteous. False as in not true. He was innocent you racist prick. He did a decade in prison with pristine behavior and passed a polygraph test as well repeated conversations with his exoneration team, which I believe were all highly educated and intelligent. You seem educated but the intelligence is clearly lacking.