The first time I heard of the Innocence Project was in 2009. I watched a documentary that profiled several of their exonerees – men wrongfully imprisoned for decades only to have been found innocent of the crime for which they were convicted. I was horrified. I never realized that the U.S. justice system made these egregious errors and that oftentimes these wrongful convictions happen because of government misconduct and poor lawyering.
As of January 2020, the Innocence Project
has documented more than 375 DNA exonerations in the United States. Twenty-one
of these exonerees had previously been sentenced to death. Even more shocking, the
rate of wrongful convictions in the U.S. is estimated to be somewhere between 2
– 10 percent. That may sound low, but when applied to a prison population of
2.3 million, the numbers become staggering. Can there really be 46,000 to
230,000 innocent people locked away? Those involved in exoneration work firmly
believe so.
This is a cause that most of us don’t have a direct connection to (fortunately) but is one that deserves our attention and support because the strength of our justice system relies on its accuracy and the ability to convict the guilty and clear the innocent. It is why I’ve chosen to run the NYC Marathon on Team Innocence Project.
Thank you for your humanity and for joining me to help extend the Innocence Project’s mission to free the innocent, prevent wrongful
convictions, and create fair, compassionate, and equitable systems of justice
for everyone.
Cheers,
Kellie
PS: This run's for you, mom.
