John,

For the past 15 years, I’ve been working to exonerate the wrongfully convicted in state and federal court as an attorney. Many of the people I work with have lost decades of their lives due to an unjust system that locked them away for crimes they didn’t commit. And each and every one of these cases has stayed with me.

But helping people regain freedom that was stolen from them and being a part of the effort to transform the system that led to these injustices is why I do this work. None of this is possible without support from people like you.

Donations big or small directly impact the work we do to free innocent people, and we want to make sure we start off the new year in the best position to help as many people as possible. Will you chip in before our end-of-year deadline so we can hit our critical fundraising goal?

Doing this work for so long is never easy, but it’s people like John Galvan that keep me going. John and two of his acquaintances, Arthur Almendarez and Francisco Nanez, were wrongly convicted of starting a 1986 fire that killed two people. At 18, 20, and 22, the lives of these three men were just beginning, but their freedom was stolen.

After they were arrested, John, Arthur, and Francisco were interrogated and intimidated for hours. John falsely confessed after police handcuffed him to a wall and beat him. The statement detectives had him sign said that the three young men started the fire by throwing a bottle filled with gasoline at the building and then tossing a cigarette into the gasoline to ignite it — and all three of the men were convicted and sentenced.

After years of painstaking legal work, scientific research, and debunking the theory that a single lit cigarette can ignite gasoline, John was finally exonerated earlier this year — along with Arthur and Francisco. The three men spent a combined 105 years in prison.

Unfortunately, there are so many others out there with stories like John’s — innocent people waiting for their chance to be freed, and we can only help them if we have continued support from people like you. So before the new year, can you make a donation to the Innocence Project so we can keep doing this work to free the innocent for years to come?

When I was working on John’s case, we made a pact that I’d go with him to an amusement park and ride a roller coaster with him once he was free. This fall, I’m happy to say we made good on that promise. Even though I’m terrified of roller coasters, there was truly no place I’d rather be.

Thank you for your support,

Tara Thompson
Senior Staff Attorney
Innocence Project