Hoosier runner plans to take his cause on the road

November 03, 2006

Twenty-six miles down, 3,000 miles to go. Steve Ivanovich of Valparaiso, Ind., ran the Chicago Marathon two weeks ago, wearing his heart on his sleeve and a message on his chest. Across the front of his running shirt read: "For those who are wrongfully accused." Thousands of spectators and fellow competitors probably wondered what circumstances were behind that phrase. "Nobody should spend a minute in jail for crimes they did not do," Steve says. "And it blows my mind how much it happens." His primary example is Richard Alexander of South Bend, who was wrongfully convicted in 1998 of being the River Park rapist and spent five years in jail before DNA evidence linked two other menattorney, sued the city for wrongful conviction but lost his appeal. He had argued that the police had violated his constitutional rights by showing witnesses and victims a faulty photo array of potential suspects, conducting a "suggestive" photo lineup, destroying evidence and conspiring to arrest him because he was black. Since his release, Alexander has had other run-ins with the law, but one neighbor in his South Bend neighborhood praised him for his good deeds in a Tribune article earlier this year. "But, really, how can you expect somebody to be a nice person after spending five years in jail for something he didn't do and not to have a system that would repay him for lost wages," Steve says. "The system protects itself and makes two victims