John,

At the end of May, the United States Supreme Court made a tragic decision in the case of Shinn v. Ramirez and Jones that will leave countless innocent and wrongfully convicted people without a court to turn to for justice.

This deeply disturbing opinion means that people who got bad lawyers twice — first at their trial and then in their post-conviction appeal to the state court — cannot turn to the federal courts for a decision on whether their inadequate legal representation led to their wrongful conviction.

What do we mean by bad lawyering? Poor preparation, failure to question the reliability of evidence, inadequate investigation, intrinsic bias — these are just some examples. Bad lawyering is a leading cause of wrongful conviction.

Because of the Supreme Court’s decision, people with very real claims of innocence will be left with nowhere to turn. To date, 186 people have been exonerated from death row. Plainly, this decision can and will cost innocent people their lives.

This means that we at the Innocence Project, with you by our side, must fight even harder for justice.

We’ve just started a new fiscal year and have set a goal of raising $25,000 online to help expand our legal team so they can represent more innocent people. Will you make a donation right now to help get us over the line?

A system that offers no meaningful vehicle to set aside convictions produced by bad lawyering will leave countless wrongfully convicted people languishing in prison and facing execution.

Now more than ever, we must continue to fight for the innocent and push back on decisions like this — but we can’t do this work without you. With your support we can represent more innocent people in the coming year. Please make a donation now.

We’ve got big plans over the next 12 months, and I’m so glad you’ll be right by our side.

Christina Swarns
Executive Director
Innocence Project