John,

Today is the Innocence Project’s 30th birthday, and in light of that, I’ve been doing a lot of reflecting over the past couple of weeks.

When I joined the Innocence Project in 2020, I saw this incredible team exonerate four of our wrongfully convicted clients: Robert DuBoise, who served 37 years for a wrongful conviction in Florida; Ron Jacobsen, who served 30 years in Georgia; Jaythan Kendrick, who spent 25 years in prison in New York; and Eddie Lee Howard, who spent 28 years on Mississippi’s death row.

And that was just in my first 90 days. Since this organization was founded back in 1992, we have helped exonerate more than 200 innocent people. These past 30 years have been incredible, and we couldn’t have done it without the support of our community and people like you. But you and I both know that we have so much more work to do.

That's why two generous donors have issued a challenge: If 200 Innocence Project supporters chip in before midnight on Monday, Aug. 29, our supporters John O’Farrell and Gloria Principe have pledged to contribute a $20,000 gift to support our work.

So will you make a donation of $30 — or whatever you can spare — to help support the next 30 years of fighting to free the innocent, transform our criminal legal system, and advance a movement to stop injustice?

When Peter Neufeld and Barry Scheck created the Innocence Project three decades ago, most people didn’t fully grasp the scope of the problem of wrongful conviction in this country.

So, when DNA technology emerged in the late 1980s and Barry and Peter began using it to scientifically prove the innocence of those wrongly convicted, they fundamentally changed the landscape of our criminal legal system forever.

For the past 30 years, the Innocence Project has held a magnifying lens to the shortcomings of our criminal legal system and helped push our country forward, toward a more just and equitable system. Indeed, many of the Innocence Project’s cases have exposed racial bias in the system and helped lay the groundwork for a reckoning on racial justice and equity.

Death penalty cases like those of Melissa Lucio, Rodney Reed, and Pervis Payne helped fuel movements for change. And, in partnership with our allies at the Innocence Network, we’ve passed hundreds of laws advancing the fight for justice. This groundswell of support shows that the people in this country are acutely aware of the injustices perpetrated by our criminal legal system.

The cases we’ve worked on and the policy changes we’ve made have helped get us to where we are today. John, none of this progress would be possible without your support.

I can’t tell you how we’ll evolve and grow in the next three decades, but I do know that our work at the Innocence Project is far from over.

So please, make a donation right now to say you’ll keep joining us in this work for the next 30 years and beyond and help us unlock a generous $20,000 gift.

With gratitude,

Christina Swarns
Executive Director
Innocence Project