In 1994, I was arrested for the murder of a 70-year-old woman during a robbery in my neighborhood of Queens, New York — a crime I didn’t commit.
During my trial, the prosecution’s primary evidence against me was testimony from two witnesses: a 10-year-old boy who saw the crime from his third-floor apartment over 100 feet away and a man who initially claimed he had not seen the attacker, but later changed his statement to line up with law enforcement’s theory.
They had no physical evidence to link me to the crime — but that didn’t matter. The only ways I matched the 10-year-old’s description was that I was a Black man in his 30s wearing a white jacket. I lived in the same housing complex where the murder took place. That’s all it took for police to zero in on me. I was locked up for a quarter of a century.
After years of trying to fight this conviction, the Innocence Project took on my case, and finally just over a week ago, I was exonerated and released from prison.
I hoped and wished for that day to come, but honestly, I never thought it would — and it changed everything for me. I’m so grateful for my Innocence Project lawyers, and I truly believe that without them, I wouldn’t be free today. I would have missed yet another Thanksgiving, and thanks to them, I was able to spend it with my family for the first time in 25 years.
But I know that there are so many more people like me, so many innocent men and women in prison awaiting justice.
So in the spirit of Giving Tuesday, a day in which we all think about how we can give back, I'm asking you to support the work of the Innocence Project to reverse and prevent wrongful convictions.
Jaythan Kendrick, who was freed and exonerated after 25 years, celebrates after his hearing in Queens on Nov. 19, 2020. (Image: Ben Hider for AP/ Innocence Project)
The Innocence Project exonerates the wrongly convicted through DNA testing and reforms the criminal justice system to prevent future injustice. www.innocenceproject.org
