Ron Jacobsen has spent over 30 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit.
In 1990, Ron was arrested for the kidnapping and rape of a Georgia woman even though he was close to 200 miles away in Tennessee with his fiancé and her family at the time of the crime.
A year and a half ago, his conviction was overturned based on DNA evidence that excluded him as the attacker — but Ron is still sitting in jail. For 20 months, Ron has sat in jail with no hope of getting out while waiting to see if the DA’s office will take him to another trial or dismiss the charges. The district attorney offered Ron release in April if he would give up on being exonerated and instead plead guilty. Ron refused, even knowing it could mean months or years more in prison. Finally last week, a judge set bail at a shocking $500,000.
Ron and his family need to pay a bail bondsman $55,000 to bring him home. This community has been so generous already and rallied around Ron — and we’re already past the half-way point. When Ron heard about all of the support and how much has been raised so far, he said “I finally see sunshine at the end of the long tunnel. THANK YOU ALL!”
The Innocence Project exonerates the wrongly convicted through DNA testing and reforms the criminal justice system to prevent future injustice. www.innocenceproject.org
