John,

On July 10, 1994, my girlfriend and I were visiting her sister, Myrna, at her apartment in Waukegan, IL. After I dropped my girlfriend at home, I was stopped by a police officer whose weapon was already drawn. When I asked what I had done, I was told that my car matched the description of a vehicle used in a crime committed that night.

I was immediately cuffed and placed in the officer’s car. The victim had named two Hispanic men as her attackers, but she mentioned none of my distinguishing features (a goatee and a birthmark under my right eye). I was standing in the street in handcuffs flanked by police. She identified me from the backseat of a car without getting out for a close up look at me.

By the time my interrogation began, I’d been awake for 26 hours. Police read me my Miranda rights in English (even though I didn’t speak the language very well), and though I wrote a statement in Spanish that included my alibi, I was tricked into signing an English-language statement that was completely different. The police took this as a confession and I was soon convicted and sentenced to 40 years in prison for a crime I didn’t commit.

I ended up serving 20 years, until I was finally exonerated in 2015 when DNA testing excluded me as the attacker. While my time in prison is over, I’ll be telling this story for the rest of my life in hopes of opening the eyes of others to the injustices in our criminal legal system, and coming together to fix it.

I’m incredibly honored to be a part of the Innocence Project’s Speakers Bureau — the program empowers exonerees like me to tell our stories and help advocate for changes to the system. I’d love to share my story in your community. Take a moment to learn more about the program and you can even book a speaker like me.

Thank you so much,

Angel Gonzalez
Exonerated in 2015
Innocence Project