It's been a year since Keith Allen Harward walked out of prison on April 8, 2016. With the expert help of The Innocence Project, Keith was exonerated and a free man at long last after wrongly serving more than 33 years for a rape and murder he did not commit.
I had been corresponding with Keith since the beginning of 2006 after having purchased a beautiful drawing he had created of a Goldfinch on clover via the Fifth Annual Inmate Art Auction (December 2005) hosted by The Fortune Society, NYC.
While it's been a decade, 250+ letters and numerous drawings later, I had not had an opportunity to meet and spend time with Keith in person...until March 26th, when he flew into SFO airport.
Keith stayed with me, my husband and our two kitty girls for a couple of days before he had to fly back home to North Carolina. And in those two days, we painted the town by attending the Vince Gill/Lyle Lovett performance at Marin Center; taking a long leisurely hike out at Blackie's Pasture in Tiburon; and enjoying coffee and snacks at an outdoor table at the Mill Valley Depot Cafe.
Photos: Keith's goldfinch pastel drawing; Keith overlooking San Francisco from Twin Peaks; Keith sitting on bench at Blackie's pasture, Tiburon; Keith hugging statue of Blackie; Leslie and Keith at Mill Valley Depot Cafe