When I wrote to the Innocence Project in 1995, I had been wrongfully convicted of a violent crime and was 12 years into my life sentence in Louisiana’s Angola prison. I had almost lost hope. Earlier this year, a judge finally allowed the fingerprint analysis that proved I was innocent, and I was exonerated after 36 years in prison.
It’s overwhelming to get used to being free after more than three decades in prison, and to take in how much the world has changed. But from the moment I walked out, the Innocence Project and its Exoneree Fund were there to help me get used to my new life.
After 36 years in prison, it’s overwhelming to get used to being free, and to take in how much the world has changed.
The Innocence Project helped me with everything, from learning how to use my first cell phone to giving me Exoneree Fund support to buy a train pass to make my way around the city where I moved to be with my family.
It’s a simple thing, but having that train pass and being able to get around without waiting for someone to give me a ride gave me a profound sense of my freedom after more than three decades of being told where to be and when.
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
