One of the first things I wanted when I got out of prison was a bathrobe.
I had spent more than twenty years behind bars wrongfully convicted of the murder of my husband. Even though overwhelming evidence pointed to my innocence, I spent decades wrongfully imprisoned, grieving for my husband, separated from my children, and fighting to prove my innocence.
After those decades of incarceration when everything was out of my control, something as simple as choosing my own comfortable clothes seemed unbelievable.
In those first days after I was released, Suzy, a social worker at the Innocence Project, took me shopping for things I needed and paid for the bathrobe I picked out thanks to the Innocence Project's Exoneree Fund. This fund and the team at the Innocence Project has helped me with so many important things in these past few months, like my first eye exam in more than twenty years and a plane ticket to my new home with my daughter and grandchildren. But picking out that bathrobe sticks out in my memory of my first few days of freedom, and I’m so thankful for the moment when I got to make that choice.
Belynda Goff with her children moments after she was released from prison. Photo by Suzy Salamy.
The Innocence Project has made moments like this possible for so many people—this week marks 27 years of fighting for the innocent. I can’t imagine where I’d be without my Innocence Project team, both before and after I was released, and I’m proud to ask for your support to help the next client who walks free.
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
