While I’m looking forward to celebrating the holidays with my family, I’m also thinking of all the innocent people who are still in prison.
Final stretch for 2019
John,
In 1983, I was sentenced to life in prison without parole for an attack and rape I did not commit. Although I had an alibi and didn’t match the description of the assailant, I was convicted — and spent 36 years behind bars — based on one eyewitness who mistakenly identified me through a flawed police procedure.
Thanks to the work of the Innocence Project and the judge who was committed to finding out the truth in my case, I was exonerated earlier this year and will be spending the holidays as a free man for the first time in decades.
The Innocence Project not only worked for years to help me prove my innocence, the team has stuck by me as I’ve started to adjust to life as a free man. With their help, I’m fulfilling life-long dreams. I’ve enrolled in college, am getting my first apartment and last month I shared my voice and love for music on stage at the Apollo Theater.
Archie Williams performing at Amateur Night at the Apollo Theater. Photo by Sameer Abdel-Khalek/Innocence Project.
While I’m looking forward to celebrating with my family, I’m also thinking of all the innocent people who are still in prison, wrongfully convicted because of errors that could be prevented.
Eyewitness misidentification is the leading contributing factor to wrongful convictions that are eventually overturned by DNA testing, and every innocent person in prison based on eyewitness misidentification deserves the freedom I finally experienced this year. I hope you'll consider making a year-end donation to help free other innocent people in 2020 and beyond. Donate this month and your gift will also be matched dollar-for-dollar.
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
