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John —

I didn’t watch the video of George Floyd’s murder.

Yet when I first heard about his killing one year ago today, I felt a range of emotions — grief, rage, fear, exhaustion and everything in between. These feelings were all too familiar: I experienced them when I learned about (and watched) the murders of Eric Garner, Ronell Foster, Walter Scott, Breonna Taylor, and so many other Black sons, daughters, mothers, and fathers at the hands of police. But by May 2020, I had stopped watching the videos of Black people being killed by the police. The emotional cost was too high, especially given how few of the videos produced actual justice.

But George Floyd’s murder demanded a new level of response. Darnella Frazier’s video captured astonishingly callous police brutality. More fundamentally, however, it captured the devastating consequence of the systematic denial of the presumption of innocence to Black people in this country. Simply put: Black people are not given the benefit of the doubt because race (Blackness) is all too often a proxy for criminality. It not only fuels police killings of innocent people, it also contributes to wrongful conviction — since 1989, nearly 50% of those who were wrongfully convicted and later found innocent are Black.

This is a reality that I, as a Black person, live with every day. I have the honor and the privilege of leading the Innocence Project, the most transformational criminal justice organization in the nation. I have argued before the United States Supreme Court, and I continue to devote my career to advancing meaningful criminal legal reform.

But I am acutely aware that I am vulnerable to unfair and potentially violent law enforcement interactions solely because of the color of my skin — and none of my professional achievements can shield me from that reality. It’s not easy to open up about this. But as a Black leader in the criminal legal field at this extraordinary time of national tumult, I think it is important to share my truth. I need to do everything I can to shine a light on injustice and support the momentum for change.

Just one month before George Floyd was murdered, I accepted the offer to serve as the executive director of the Innocence Project. I saw how Mr. Floyd’s horrifying murder became a catalyst for change across the country, the world, and at the Innocence Project.

Your voices, your calls for change, and your allyship kept me, and us, going through this uniquely challenging year. With you by our side, we will keep working for real equity and justice in our criminal legal system, including a presumption of innocence that applies equally to everyone regardless of race.

If you’d like, take a moment to read my full statement on the Innocence Project site, and then share it online with your friends and family.

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With deep appreciation,

Christina Swarns
Executive Director
Innocence Project

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The Innocence Project exonerates the wrongly convicted through DNA testing and reforms the criminal justice system to prevent future injustice.

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