On Friday, in response to the lawsuit we filed on January 23, the Jacksonville Mayor and City Council voted to release forensic evidence for further testing in the case of my brother, Ledell Lee. This is an important step in getting to the truth about who murdered Debra Reese, the crime my brother was convicted of and that led to his execution.
As I reflect on Black History Month, I am reminded of the continued fight for racial equality in the U.S., but also the shock my family and I felt 27 years ago this month, when the Jacksonville Police Department in Arkansas arrested Ledell and accused him of murder. Join me in sharing Ledell’s story this Black History Month.
Patricia Young outside of her family home in Little Rock, Arkansas. Photo by Matt White/Innocence Project.
As a poor, black man accused of killing a white woman, the odds were not in Ledell’s favor. Innocent black people are seven times more likely to be wrongfully convicted of murder than innocent white people, the National Registry of Exonerations reported.
Studies have found that the race of a victim influences the likelihood of the accused being given the death penalty, according to the U.S. General Accounting Office. Black people make up 13% of the U.S. population, but 42% of people on death row.
Started in 1992 as a legal clinic at Cardozo School of Law, the Innocence Project is now an independent nonprofit, affiliated with Cardozo, that exonerates the wrongly convicted through DNA testing and reforms the criminal justice system to prevent future injustice. www.innocenceproject.org
