John,

In 2001, Tami Vance and Leigh Stubbs were wrongly convicted of assaulting their friend, Kimberly Williams, in Mississippi.

The conviction was largely based on bite mark evidence — a debunked forensic method — and a biased trial during which witnesses and “experts” gave testimony filled with homophobic statements.

Tami said that she’ll never forget the moment her trial judge told her and Leigh that because they loved each other — because they were openly lesbians — they deserved to spend the rest of their lives in prison. “He said he was gonna make sure that we did, and then he gave us 44 years to serve,” she recalled.

Please, during the last day of Pride month, take a moment to read more about Tami and Leigh’s story and educate yourself on the ways people in LGBTQ+ community are discriminated against in our criminal legal system.
 

“This case really highlights how sexual orientation and queer identity can be weaponized,” said Valena Beety, who represented Leigh in her post-conviction litigation with the Mississippi Innocence Project. Valena is also the founding director of the West Virginia Innocence Project, and the author of Manifesting Justice.

Both Leigh and Tami were the subjects of discrimination during their trial. In fact, after learning the case would discuss “lesbian behavior,” two jurors said they would vote guilty even before the trial began. Tami, who is less femme-presenting, was the target of particularly hateful character assassination and derogatory language.

The treatment that they both received reflects the many ways members of the LGBTQ+ community experience discrimination at the hands of law enforcement and the criminal legal system to this day. A recent survey found that lesbian, gay, and bisexual people people are incarcerated at a rate more than three times higher than the overall adult incarceration rate. And according to a report from the National Center for Transgender Equality and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, 1 in 5 trans people who have had police contact reported that they have been harassed by police.

Tami said she wishes people would be more understanding of others. “We’re all the same — everybody bleeds red,” she said.

Valena stressed that queer visibility matters in helping to combat discrimination and prevent its role in wrongful convictions, saying, “We have to show ourselves and be seen in our full identities. Because otherwise, that leads to decision makers being able to single out an individual for their gender expression for their presentation, and again, falsely attribute criminality to marginalized identities.”

It’s critical that all of us fight against homophobia, transphobia, and any form of discrimination and hatred against the LGBTQ+ community all year round.

Please take some time today to read more about Tami and Leigh’s story.

If you’d like to read more Pride content, please check out the latest piece from Innocence Project’s Executive Director Christina Swarns on how LGBTQ+ people are vulnerable to wrongful conviction.

Thank you so much for your support,

— The Innocence Project Team