John,
Since we started the Innocence Project 31 years ago, we’ve seen so many people who have had decades of their lives stolen by an unjust system. Some of them went into the system as teenagers and came out as adults in their 40s or 50s — just to see how someone changes in that amount of time is staggering and heartbreaking.
But seeing people freed and reunited with loved ones, after all those lost years, is nothing short of inspiring, and it’s why we do this work. Those moments of pure relief and joy are incredible to witness — and they wouldn’t be possible without support from this community.
Today is the last day of the year, and it’s also the final day of our big fundraising deadline. If 2,024 supporters donate before midnight tonight, a generous donor will give a special $200,000 gift to support the Innocence Project’s work in the new year. We want to take a moment and thank you for already helping us reach that goal. So will you make a donation before the midnight deadline and help us start 2024 strong?
Back in the early days of the Innocence Project, Barry went on The Phil Donahue Show to talk about the work we were doing and asked people to write in if they had an innocence claim and needed help. We expected to get maybe a couple of hundred letters — you can imagine how shocked we were when we ended up receiving thousands of requests from across the country. We had to start stacking mail bins floor to ceiling throughout our office.
That’s when we knew that there were widespread injustices happening in our criminal legal system, and that we needed to grow if we wanted to help more people.
And today, 31 years later, we’re so proud to still be doing this work. To date, we’ve helped free or exonerate 249 people who spent a collective 3,874 years wrongfully incarcerated. This work isn’t always easy, but it remains essential.
We’re so grateful for the community built here at the Innocence Project and for everything you’ve done to support this work. We hope to keep going for another three decades — but that’s only possible if we have people like you with us.
So please, before midnight tonight, help us reach our goal of getting 2,024 donors so we can unlock the $200,000 match and start the new year off ready to fight for justice.
Thank you so much for your support,
Barry Scheck
Co-Founder and Special Counsel
Innocence Project
Peter Neufeld
Co-Founder and Special Counsel
Innocence Project
|
