I went to a reception the other night to celebrate the efforts of a group called the Innocence Project, which provides legal assistance to prisoners for whom the technology of DNA testing may now provide proof that they did not commit the crimes they've been found guilty of. One such man, Clark McMillan of Memphis, Tennessee, was in attendance that night, having recently been declared a free man. McMillan was 23 when he was sentenced to 119 years in prison. He is now 45.

He was in New York City for only one day. I figured he might like to take in a few sights while he was here, so I asked if he'd ever been to the Museum of Natural History. He looked me in the eye and took a second before answering my question. One of the things I now know about men who have spent large amounts of time in prison is that they are not in a rush.

"Well," he said, "I haven't been anywhere."

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