Exoneree Huwe Burton and Staff Attorney Susan Friedman training together. Photo by Sameer Abdel-Khalek/Innocence Project.
John,
On January 24th of this year, I stood next to my client Huwe Burton in a Bronx courtroom as he was exonerated — 30 years after police coerced him into falsely confessing to the murder of his beloved mother.
It was an honor to represent Huwe and to stand beside him as the judge finally acknowledged his innocence and apologized on behalf of the system that incarcerated him for 19 years.
This Sunday, November 3rd, Huwe and l will be side-by-side again as we run the 2019 TCS New York City Marathon together. I’m honoring Huwe and his long journey to exoneration by raising money for the Innocence Project.
Huwe started running while he was wrongfully incarcerated and always said that once he was exonerated, he would run the NYC marathon. Not long after his exoneration, he signed up and convinced me to join him. While we run, I’ll be raising money for the Innocence Project and for our many other clients who are still waiting for their chance to prove their innocence.
Now, I’m training five days a week and sometimes even finding the chance to train alongside Huwe. He inspired me as my client, and it’s an honor to share in such a meaningful journey with him — on marathon day, and every day.
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
