The man suspected of sending ricin-laced letters to President Obama has been vindicated. Charges were dropped against Paul Kevin Curtis on Tuesday. He told CNN’s Piers Morgan, “It’s like a train has been lifted off my shoulders.”
According to CNN, U.S. Attorney Felicia Adams said that “new information” had become available. Curtis’s attorney, Christi McCoy, believes her client was framed. The poisoned letters aimed at the president, Mississippi Senator Roger Wicker, and Sadie Holland, a judge in Mississippi, contained catch phrases Curtis often uses on social media sites like Facebook.
“I do believe that someone who was familiar and is familiar with Kevin just simply took his personal information and did this to him,” McCoy said.
It remains unclear what new information has surfaced, and why someone would want to frame Curtis this way, though McCoy believes he was just a scapegoat.
Curtis told CNN he now thinks about “how many people are thrown in jail because of circumstantial evidence and [how] someone can frame you that easily.”
Police are reportedly investigating J. Everett Dutschke, a Tupelo man whom Curtis previously suggested may have framed him; however, no charges have been filed and he has not been named as a suspect.
Alisha Mims is a writer and researcher for Ring of Fire.
