Sonny Bharadia Was Innocent. America Didn’t Care.

On Sunday, November 18, 2001, just weeks after 9/11, a woman returned home from church in Thunderbolt, Georgia — and walked into a nightmare. She found a man in the midst of a burglary, who tied her up, sexually assaulted her at knife-point, and fled with her belongings. Over 250 miles away, another man — who had watched the new Harry Potter movie the day before — realized that someone had stolen his car. He reported it to the police.

No matter. Within two years, Sonny Bharadia’s life was upended. On June 27, 2003, the Gujarati American was convicted and sentenced to life in prison without parole for a crime in a town he had never visited. Sterling Flint — who had stolen his car, committed the burglary, and sexually assaulted the woman — would walk free. It would take nearly 23 years for the American justice system to right the wrong, but these are years Bharadia will never get back. “How are you supposed to cope with that?” Bharadia told The Juggernaut. “You see your 20s go by, your 30s go by, your 40s.” This is his story.