. >> ken ireland lost 21 years. he was misidentified by witness reward. convicted in a 1986 rape and murder, dna proved his innocence. >> good morning. >> good morning, sir. >> reporter: because of the rare perspective of an innocent man who has done hard time, the governor put ireland on connecticut's parole board. >> at some point in your life, sir, you have to step up. >> so this is your new cell? >> yeah. for eight hours a day. >> reporter: it took five years to got this job. at first he lived with his sister and he found work as a counselor for troubled kids. >> i got a small apartment in town. there have been nights where i barricaded myself in a walk-in closet. slept in there, thinking, that someone is going to come kick down my door and drag me back. >> reporter: you slept in a closet? >> yeah, yeah, a few times i have. six years later. >> i don't have the issues now. >> reporter: one thing that made it easier is a connecticut law that compensates the wrongly convicted. a year ago ireland was the first to get a check. what did the state give you?

> pelley: ken ireland lost 21 years. he was misidentified by witnesses who collected a $20,000 reward. convicted in a 1986 rape and murder, dna proved his innocence. >> good morning. >> good morning, sir. of an innocent man who's done hard time, the governor put ireland on connecticut's parole board. >> at some point in your life, sir, you have to step up. >> pelley: so this is your new cell? >> ireland: well, yeah, for eight hours a day. >> pelley: it took five years to get this job. at first, he lived with his sister and he found work as a counselor for troubled kids. >> ireland: i got a little small apartment in town. i mean, there was the nights where i just barricaded myself in a big walk-in closet and slept in there. just thinking, you know, someone's going to come kick down my door and drag me back. >> pelley: you slept in a closet? >> ireland: yeah, yeah, a few times, i have. >> pelley: are you over that now, six years later? >> ireland: yeah, i don't have them issues now. it gets easier and easier every day. >>

still wouldn't be worth it. >> reporter: ken ireland was at all. one is julie bahmer's home, michigan. >> other than the time what have you lost? >> everything. everything. my life is nothing as it was. >> reporter: in 2003, bahmer was a mortgage broker raising her sister's baby. he became ill. she took him to an emergency room. doctors there suspected the boy had been shaken until his brain was damaged. she was convicted of child abuse. she was in her fifth year in prison when new evidence showed that the boy had suffered a natural stroke. she was retried, acquitted, and the judge apologized. after she was released for a time, she was homeless. >> how did you start over? >> it was very, very, very rough. you start from the bottom. reclaiming your identity. i didn't have an i.d. you start applying for jobs. then you have to go through, okay, now there is a five year gap on your resume, why is this? you tell your potential employer the truth. and in my case, i never got phone calls back. >> there was no support for you of any kind? >> no. >> julie b

. >> ken ireland lost 21 years. he was misidentified by witness whose collected a $20,000 reward. convicted in a 1986 rape and murder, dna proved his innocence. >> good morning. >> good morning, sir. >> reporter: because of the rare perspective of an innocent man who has done hard time, the governor put ireland on connecticut's parole board. sir, you have to step up. >> so this is your new cell? >> yeah. for eight hours a day. >> reporter: it took five years to got this job. at first he lived with his sister and he found work as a counselor for troubled kids. >> i got a small apartment in town. there have been nights where i barricaded myself in a walk-in closet. slept in there, thinking, that someone is going to come kick down my door and drag me back. >> reporter: you slept in a closet? >> yeah, yeah, a few times i have. are you over that now? six years later. >> i denton't have the issues now. >> reporter: one thing that made it easier is a connecticut law that compensates the wrongly convicted. a year ago ireland was the first to get a check. what did the state give you? >> $6