John,

I begin my third year as the Executive Director of the Innocence Project with a deep sense of urgency about our mission to free the innocent, prevent wrongful convictions, and create fair, compassionate, and equitable systems of justice for everyone.

I firmly believe that the Innocence Project is the most transformative criminal legal system reform organization in American history, and I am incredibly proud of our record of success.

In the last year alone, we helped to free or exonerate 10 wrongfully convicted people, helped prevent the executions of three people — including Melissa Lucio in Texas — and passed pioneering laws in Delaware, Oregon, Utah, and Indiana.

But the recent Supreme Court decisions in both Shinn v. Ramirez and Jones and Vega v. Tekoh will make it harder for the hundreds of thousands of innocent people who are behind prison walls to prove that they were wrongfully convicted and seek redress for law enforcement violations of their rights.

So, notwithstanding our successes, I have a renewed sense of urgency and alarm. So, where do we go from here? I shared my thoughts in a recent blog post on our website — please, take some time to read it today.

With deep gratitude,

Christina Swarns
Executive Director
Innocence Project