John,

For the past 31 years, the Innocence Project has been fighting to free the innocent and pass policies to build a more just and equitable criminal legal system. Because we’ve been doing this work for so long, we have a huge network of people with deep knowledge of the complexities and injustices of this system — and we think everyone could benefit from hearing their stories.

With Latinx Heritage Month coming up, I wanted to give you an opportunity to book Innocence Project’s experts or exonerees to speak about advancing criminal and racial justice at events you might be planning.

Take a moment to look through some of our speakers, and then book someone to come speak at your Latinx Heritage Month event.

It’s no secret that our criminal legal system disproportionately impacts Black and brown communities. And Latinx people face unique challenges when it comes to wrongful conviction.

Immigration status can make someone more vulnerable to pleading guilty to crimes they didn’t commit under threat of deportation — and police have used witnesses’ immigration statuses to manipulate their testimony. Latinx people, both immigrants and citizens, may also be more vulnerable to wrongful convictions because of language barriers. Nearly 30% of the U.S. Latinx population does not consider itself proficient in English and according to a study published in the UCLA Law Review, about 40% of Latinx exonerees who falsely confessed to crimes said that they “did not fully understand spoken English.”

As an organization whose work is rooted in anti-racism, these disparities are why we work every single day to transform the criminal legal system. And our clients have first-hand experience dealing with these challenges and fighting against a system that has unfairly entrapped them. 

We believe that one of the first steps in creating more justice and equity is to share these deeply personal stories so that more people can understand why this fight is so important. 

So if you would like to invite an exoneree or Innocence Project staff member to share their story or discuss how we can build a more just system together at your Latinx Heritage Month event, book one of our speakers now.

I look forward to hearing from you!

Isabel Vasquez
Communications Coordinator
Innocence Project