John,

Juneteenth commemorates the end of slavery in the United States. It’s the day in 1865 that Union soldiers reached Galveston, Texas — the last state in the country to learn the news that the Civil War was over and all enslaved people were now free.

Six months later, the 13th Amendment, which formally abolished slavery in the form of one person owning another as property, was ratified. However, the amendment did not end racism or even all slavery in the United States, as it continued to allow slavery “as punishment for crime.”

Today, the legacy of slavery continues to undermine the function of our criminal legal system and contributes to the disproportionate representation of Black people among those who are wrongfully convicted and wrongfully incarcerated. The numbers are stark: Half of the nearly 3,000 people exonerated since 1989 are Black, and on average, it takes longer to exonerate an innocent Black person than an innocent white person. And despite Black people making up about 13% of the U.S. population, 41% of people currently on death row are Black.

That’s why the work we do to free innocent people and transform the system must be grounded in anti-racism. Every single day, we fight to build a more just and equitable legal system and to confront ways in which systemic racism drives wrongful convictions — but we can’t do it without support from this community.

At the end of the month, we have a big end-of-fiscal-year fundraising deadline. What we raise right now will help us plan for how much we can do in the next 12 months. Will you make a donation right now to help ensure we can accomplish all of our goals for the new fiscal year? [[link removed]]

Thank you for your support,

— The Innocence Project Team



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The Innocence Project works to free the innocent, prevent wrongful convictions, and create fair, compassionate, and equitable systems of justice for everyone. Founded in 1992 by Barry C. Scheck and Peter J. Neufeld at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University, the organization is now an independent nonprofit. Our work is guided by science and grounded in anti-racism.

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