Innocence Project

This past weekend, the Innocence Project joined more than 1,000 advocates, community leaders, and organizations at #UJCSummit2026 in New York City for conversations on accountability, justice, and criminal legal reform. Thank you to Team Roc and United Justice Coalition for bringing us all under one roof. We can’t wait to return next year!

This fall, the Innocence Project is revamping one of its popular programs which gives associates from some of New York City’s top law firms the opportunity to get a glimpse into the powerful work driving the innocence movement. Our Summer Associates Program is now returning for a fall edition for Pro-Bono Week (Oct. 25- 31), where future lawyers will have a chance to hear from —  and work with — attorneys, policy advocates and clients with firsthand experiences with #wrongfulconviction. Book an expert or speaker with lived experience with wrongful conviction here: https://bit.ly/483uxoU

Curtis Flowers, who was exonerated in 2020 after six trials and nearly 23 years in prison, died last week at 56. His case is one of the clearest examples of how jury selection drives wrongful convictions. The prosecutor in all six trials struck Black prospective jurors at more than four times the rate of white ones. Research shows that all-white juries deliberate for less time, consider fewer perspectives, and make more mistakes than representative juries. The Supreme Court's 1986 Batson ruling was meant to stop this practice. Curtis’ case shows how much it still goes unchecked. The Innocence Project’s own Ashley Burrell reflects on his life, his courage, and what we owe him: https://bit.ly/4dM28Y1

We are thrilled to announce that our feature “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness: Portraits of a Promise Broken and Restored,” is nominated for a 2026 #AnthemAward in the Special Projects in Content & Media, Human & Civil Rights category. In this special #America250 feature, 16 Innocence Project clients reflected on the American promise of freedom — what it means to have it stolen and what it’s like to reclaim it.⁠ Vote for us before Oct. 29! https://bit.ly/4hVO0ws

We are thrilled to announce that our short film, “What I Didn’t Know” is nominated for a 2026 #AnthemAward in the Video Campaign or Series in Campaign, Human & Civil Rights category! “What I Didn’t Know,” explores the challenges of life after wrongful conviction and incarceration — and the strength that it takes to heal and rebuild. Vote for us before Oct. 29! https://bit.ly/4hMjGWl

Happening this Friday! On Oct. 16, Jarrett Adams, co-founder of the exoneree-led organization Life After Justice, will share findings from a first-of-its-kind survey that has major implications for data-driven programs, policies, and reforms around wrongful conviction. Jarrett will be joined by exoneree and Innocence Project’s Re-Entry Coach Rodney Roberts, who will discuss his personal experience with wrongful conviction. Reserve your spot: https://bit.ly/4hwIEIX 🗓️Friday, October 16, 2026 ⏰12:00 – 1:30pm ET via Zoom Webinar (Live)

“The mind reels at the sheer cruelty…” Jimmie "Chris" Duncan is rebuilding his life after 32 years in prison, 27 of them on Louisiana's death row, for a crime that never happened. A judge declared him “factually innocent” of rape and murder, a ruling unanimously upheld by the state Supreme Court. Now, more than three decades later, prosecutors have reopened the case and are threatening to exhume a child’s body.

In 1976, the U.S. Supreme Court declared that so-called “guided discretion” statutes — laws that restrict the factors upon which juries can rely in imposing a death sentence — would prevent the arbitrariness that led the court to declare the death penalty unconstitutional just four years earlier. But in the decades that followed, case after case exposed the continued unreliability of the nation’s capital punishment system. Since 1976, 168 people condemned to death have been exonerated, according to the National Registry of Exonerations. "Notwithstanding the Supreme Court's prediction, we have learned through painful experience that innocent people are wrongfully convicted of murder, wrongfully sentenced to death, and wrongfully executed," said Christina Swarns, executive director of the Innocence Project. Ahead of World Day Against the Death Penalty and beyond, the Innocence Project remains thoroughly committed to the fight for the freedom and exoneration of our condemned clients.

Curtis Flowers, who spent nearly 23 years in Mississippi prisons for a crime he did not commit, died Wednesday at his home. He was 56. Mr. Flowers was 26 when he was arrested for the 1996 murders of four people at a furniture store in Winona, Mississippi. The same district attorney prosecuted him six times. In 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court threw out his conviction and death sentence, finding the prosecutor had worked to keep Black people off his juries. Mississippi dropped all charges in 2020. His case is now part of constitutional law on racial discrimination in jury selection. It is also a reminder of what that discrimination costs: more than two decades of an innocent man's life. Our thoughts are with his family and loved ones. https://lnkd.in/enxJiUcT

Ten years ago today, our executive director, Christina Swarns — then serving as the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund Inc.’s litigation director — successfully argued Buck v. Davis before the United States Supreme Court. Christina’s client, Duane Buck, was sentenced to death after an “expert” called by his own trial attorney, testified that Mr. Buck was more likely to commit violent crimes in the future because he is Black.  The Supreme Court ultimately declared that his death sentence was unconstitutional. Writing for the majority, Chief Justice John Roberts emphasized, "Our law punishes people for what they do, not who they are. Dispensing punishment on the basis of an immutable characteristic flatly contravenes this guiding principle." We know from our work that racial bias and discrimination not only undermine the administration of the death penalty they also drive wrongful convictions. Indeed, according to the National Registry of Exonerations, Black people are seven times more likely than white people to be falsely convicted of a serious crime. We explored this and other stark disparities at our recent Race and Wrongful Conviction Symposium with NYU Law School and N.Y.U. Review of Law & Social Change.