Elsie Oscarson is free!
After 21 years in prison, Elsie Oscarson was finally released on September 2, 2019. She was granted a new trial, but because it would be rolling the dice one more time, she took an Alford plea, which allows her to maintain her innocence, but she must still remain on a sex offender registry, cannot be in the same room or in a park or school with anyone under seventeen years of age without another adult present, and has to abide by other restrictions. She also cannot initiate contact with her children, though they may contact her through the courts.
Despite these restrictions. Elsie is ecstatic to be free, determined to abide by all regulations, and is living with her sister in a home in northern Vermont. She looks forward to gardening, cooking, taking walks, and drinking eggnog, and eating whatever she wants. (She has already had a big steak.)
As a volunteer and former board member with the National Center for Reason and Justice, I was instrumental in investigating her case, determining her likely innocence, and helping to get her case taken on by Seth Lipschutz, her lawyer (who retired just as she was freed) for the Vermont Prisoner’s Rights division of the Defender General’s office. The NCRJ has sponsored her case for many years and is delighted that she is finally free after being imprisoned for over two decades for offenses she almost certainly did not commit. –Mark Pendergrast
I am beyond ecstatic to hear this news. I volunteered as a spiritual mentor (Christian) when I met Elsie in MCI Framingham. We would meet one on one and talk about the her life and try to encourage her and pray for her. I remember her story and I remember that it was so clear that she was innocent. And for context, in the setting of that work, people readily admitted guilt when they had it as it is freeing to be reminded that there is complete forgiveness with God because of Jesus, if we simply go to him in honesty and that nothing we can do but deny our brokenness and walk away from God, that separates us from God. (Bc He passionately pursues us all, despite our every wrongful act.) i am also a clinical social worker and I have worked with both sexually abused children and their abusers in my professional work before. There was nothing about Elsie that fit this kind of a profile. Sadly the only thing Elsie was guilty of was trust. She trusted the police and the social workers and the lawyers and the whole criminal justice system that if she just told the truth that, because she knew she was obviously innocent, that she would be found innocent. Instead she was found guilty and her sentence was heavy. I am so grateful to Mark Pendergast and all the people who worked to get her set free. This is such good news. Justice delayed is still painful but better than no justice. Enjoy your freedom Elsie! You are a beautiful woman.