John,

Sept. 15 through Oct. 15 marks Latinx Heritage Month. We’ve already been sharing powerful stories from our extraordinary Latinx exonerees and giving you the opportunity to book them to speak at events through our Speakers Bureau — but it’s also important to highlight the unique challenges that Latinx people face in our criminal legal system.

For some Latinx folks in the U.S. — like Innocence Project client Clemente Aguirre —  immigration status or language barriers play a major role in wrongful conviction.

In the summer of 2004, Clemente was enjoying a day off work, hanging out with friends through the evening. Early the next morning, he stopped by his neighbor’s house on his way home. He quickly discovered that his neighbors, 47-year-old Cheryl Williams and 68-year-old Carol Bareis, had been attacked. He tried to revive Cheryl, but it was too late. Because of his immigration status, Clemente feared he would be deported if he contacted the police about what he’d seen. So he didn’t report the crime. About a week later, he was charged with their murders and ultimately convicted and sentenced to death. Clemente ended up spending 14 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit before he was finally exonerated by DNA and other newly discovered evidence in 2018.

Innocent Latinx immigrants like Clemente are more vulnerable to pleading guilty to crimes they didn’t commit under threat of deportation, and for both citizens and immigrants, language can also be a barrier to justice. About 40% of Latinx exonerees who falsely confessed to crimes said that they “did not fully understand spoken English,” according to a study published in the UCLA Law Review.

While courts provide interpreters at trial, there is no constitutional right to an interpreter during an interrogation by law enforcement. If one is provided during interrogation, it’s often a police officer who happens to speak the language, rather than a trained interpreter and translator. As a result, Latinx people can be more vulnerable to wrongful conviction.

When Miguel Roman was arrested for a 1988 murder in Connecticut, officers read him his Miranda rights in Spanish — but his interrogation was largely conducted in English, even though he didn’t speak English fluently. Because of his confusion, he gave conflicting statements and those statements were used to convict him at trial. Miguel spent 20 years in prison until DNA testing proved him innocent, and he was exonerated in 2009.

But language barriers don’t just pose challenges to the wrongfully accused, they can also be a hurdle for the wrongfully convicted when it comes to seeking justice and surviving in prison.

Clemente said he faced additional violence and brutality while in prison because of his lack of English fluency. “They emasculate you, they degrade you, and they punish you because they think you’re acting that you don’t speak English,” Clemente told the Orlando Sentinel in 2018.

As an organization whose work is rooted in anti-racism, we’re fighting to right these injustices every single day — and we won’t stop until we create a more just and equitable criminal legal system.

If we truly want to address the disproportionate and unjust treatment that leads to the wrongful conviction of Black and brown people, we’ve got to stay committed to pushing policy changes that will hold police and prosecutors accountable, ensure all interrogations are recorded, improve lineup protocols, and more.

So today, read more about the unique challenges that Latinx people face when it comes to wrongful conviction, and then share this article with your friends and family on social media.

Para leer en español haz clic aquí.

As we continue to fight for racial justice and equity in the legal system, we’re grateful to have you by our side.

Thanks for your support,

— The Innocence Project Team