LIVESTREAM PROGRAM | FRIDAY, OCTOBER 2, 2020
Register for the livestream event here.
9:00 – 10:00 AM ET
Organizer: Ricky Kidd
Segment: The Case of Lamar Johnson
Speakers: Ricky Kidd, St. Louis City Circuit Attorney Kimberly Gardner, Lamar Johnson, Lindsey Runnels
Join Ricky Kidd (exonerated September 15, 2019) for a discussion about the case of Lamar Johnson, a man who was wrongfully convicted in Missouri and has served 25 years of a life sentence to date. Ricky will be in conversation with Mr. Johnson's attorney Lindsey Runnels (Morgan & Pilate LLC), St. Louis City Circuit Attorney Kimberly Gardner, and Lamar Johnson himself.
10:00 – 11:00 AM ET
Organizer: HEARD (Helping Educate to Advance the Rights of Deaf Communities)
Segment: Understanding Disability's Inextricable Connections to Mass Incarceration & Wrongful Convictions
Speakers: Esperanza Dillard, Ricardo Harris, Kaj Kraus, Talila “TL” Lewis
Most people are aware of commonly understood and researched causes of wrongful convictions; however many are unaware of the prevalence of wrongful convictions among deaf/disabled people caused by the failure of law enforcement, attorneys, and the courts to do due diligence on disability and deaf cultures and/or to follow federal disability rights laws. This segment will explore the historic and current nexus between racism, classism, ableism, and structural inequity, focusing on multiply-marginalized people affected by the penal system. Participants will unlearn common misconceptions about disability and disabled people, and will learn how ableism, in tandem with other oppressions, forms and informs the criminal legal system. These misconceptions lead to disproportionate arrests and wrongful convictions of disabled people--most of whom live at the intersection of marginalities.
11:00 – 11:30 AM ET
Organizer: Proyecto Inocencia de Puerto Rico
Segment: Wrongful Convictions in Puerto Rico: Expectations, Reality and Challenges
Speakers: Julio Fontanet Maldonado, Juan Carlos Vélez Santana
Founder and Director of Proyecto Inocencia de Puerto Rico and Dean of the Law School at Universidad Interamericana de Puerto Rico, Julio Fontanet Maldonado & Program Coordinator of Proyecto Inocencia de Puerto Rico and Law Professor at Universidad Interamericana de Puerto Rico, Juan Carlos Vélez Santana will discuss the issue of wrongful conviction as it occurs in Puerto Rico, focusing on the unique context and challenges to date.
11:30 AM – 12:00 PM ET
Organizer: Wisconsin Innocence Project
Segment: Wealth-Based Incarceration: How Pretrial Detention Contributes to Wrongful Convictions
Speakers: McKenzie Ahmet, Emily Behn, Stephen Hsu, Michele Lavigne, Sarah Mallak, Alexandra Natapoff, Madeline O’Connor, Michael Odden, Dan Scheidell, Carrie Sperling
Pre-trial incarceration is a bad idea for almost every person facing trial. People awaiting trial from a jail cell can’t work, take care of their children and provide for their families, get proper medical care, attend school, or engage in healthy habits like sleep and exercise. Because pre trial incarceration can so quickly destroy so many facets of people’s lives, innocent people plead guilty – at alarmingly high rates – simply to avoid inevitable harm to themselves and their families. Those who persevere, insisting on their day in court, will find it hard to consult with their attorney and participate in their defense. At trial, defendants are routinely preyed upon by jailhouse snitches who are incentivized by prosecutors desperate to fortify their cases. Bail reform is necessary to protect innocent defendants and prevent wrongful convictions before they happen.
12:00 – 1:00 PM ET
Organizer: Witness to Innocence
Segment: Innocent on Death Row
Speakers: Clemente Aguirre, Kirk Bloodsworth, Derrick Jamison
Witness to Innocence (WTI) is the nation’s only organization dedicated to empowering exonerated death row survivors to be the most powerful and effective voice in the struggle to end the death penalty in the United States. Through public speaking, testifying in state legislatures, media work, and active participation in our nation’s cultural life, WTI members are working to end the death penalty by educating the public about innocence and wrongful convictions. WTI also provides an essential network of peer support for the exonerated, most of whom received no compensation or access to reentry services when released from death row. Three death row exonorees and members of WTI will discuss the wrongful convictions that put them on death row and explain how the death penalty continues to endanger the lives of innocent people.
1:00 – 2:00 PM ET
Organizer: Innocence Project
Segment: Police Accountability & Transparency: The Drive for Policy Reform & Racial Justice
Speakers: Rebecca Brown, Tony Goldwyn, NY State Senator Zellnor Myrie, Dr. Yusef Salaam, NJ State Senator Loretta Weinberg
As protests calling for police accountability and racial justice sweep the nation, and indeed the world, it is important to consider how the treatment people receive on our streets not only translates into police violence but into wrongful convictions. While the drumbeat for meaningful police accountability continues, policymakers are now confronted with the complex laws, policies, and union contracts that have consistently shielded law enforcement and allowed them to act with effective immunity.
2:00 – 3:00 PM ET
Organizer: Heidi Goodwin, Healing Justice, Zieva Konvisser
Segment: The Muses - An Artistic Showcase for Freed & Exonerated Women
Speakers: Tomeshia Artis, Audrey Edmunds, Heidi Goodwin, Tabitha Pollock Hershberger, Grace Huang, Sunny Jacobs, Gloria Killian, Amanda Knox, Zieva Konvisser, Ginny Lefever, Julie Rea, Jenny Reach, Christy Sheppard, Jennifer Thompson
Freed and exonerated women and crime survivors showcase their poetry, artwork, and other creative pieces illustrating the deep, long-lasting impacts of wrongful convictions and unique challenges to rebuilding their lives.
3:00 – 4:00 PM ET
Organizer: New England Innocence Project
Segment: The Black Lives Matter Movement & Wrongful Conviction
Speakers: Sean Ellis, Heidi Goodwin, Radha Natarajan, Darrell Sigger
In 2013, the Black Lives Matter movement brought together people from all over the world to fight racism and anti-Black violence, especially in the form of police brutality. This year, in response to the continued murders of Black people at the hands of the police, publicized for all to see, the movement has expanded and galvanized communities to fight for change. The Black Lives Matter movement, as well as the movement against wrongful convictions, are both responses to a history of systemic racism that permeates all societal structures, with the criminal legal system being a tool to enforce it. Wrongfully convicted people have a unique perspective on the failures of the criminal legal system, from systemic racism to police brutality to the violence of the state through wrongful prosecutions and mass incarceration. Wrongfully convicted people have been victims of biases that permeate the criminal legal system and that led to assumptions that they were guilty and dangerous even when they did not commit the crimes of which they were accused. In addition, wrongfully convicted people who have survived incarceration know, better than most, how our punishment system creates trauma, not justice. In this panel, three people wrongfully convicted in different parts of the country (Massachusetts, Michigan, and Washington) will discuss their experiences and how they intersect with the truths of the Black Lives Matter movement.
4:00 – 5:00 PM ET
Organizer: Georgia Innocence Project
Segment: Wrongful Conviction & Race - Moving from Awareness to Action
Speakers: Jimmie Gardner, Marissa Gaston, Atlanta Hawks Head Coach Lloyd Pierce, Melissa Redmon
This session will focus on an open conversation about racial discrimination in our country and the way those biases, offenses, and systemic injustices increase the chance of wrongful convictions. The panelists will also talk about the ways that we - as individuals, organizations, and communities - can work to be better allies and take action to build a future of equalized justice.
5:00 –6:00 PM ET
Organizer: Innocence Project New Orleans
Segment: Wrongful Convictions & the Orleans District Attorney Race
Speakers: Glenn Davis, Arthur Hunter, Keva Landrum, Jee Park, Morris Reed, Jason Williams
Executive Director of the Innocence Project of New Orleans (IPNO) Jee Park and former IPNO client Glenn Davis will facilitate a discussion focused on the issue of wrongful conviction and official misconduct with the four candidates currently running for Orleans District Attorney.
6:00 – 7:00 PM ET
Organizer: Ohio Innocence Project, Healing Justice, Chagrin Arts
Segment: Freedom of Expression - Giving Voice to Victims of Wrongful Conviction
Speakers: Karen Prasser, Pierce Reed, Dr. Sara Schiavoni, Jennifer Thompson
Healing Justice integrates the interrelated and imperative concepts of healing and justice to address the widespread human harm caused by wrongful convictions. Their healing retreats invite people directly harmed in these cases to come together in a safe, nurturing space and speak openly about their grief and loss, provide peer support to one another, and begin the road to healing and recovery. One retreat activity involves the creation of expressive arts, through which participants illustrate the trauma they suffered and survived. Through creating this art, freedom is gained: freedom to express unexplored feelings, freedom to share the truth, freedom from false narratives, freedom from living in the shadows, freedom from being silenced and forgotten, and - ultimately - freedom from pain and suffering. The beautiful photographs in this exhibit capture art made by crime victims, the exonerated, and family members of both.
7:00 – 7:30 PM ET
Organizer: Illinois Innocence Project
Segment: A Pound of Flesh - What the State took from Jerry Herrington
Speakers: Jerry Herrington, Lauren Kaeseberg
From the age of 16 through 45, Jerry served - and completed - a prison sentence for a murder he did not commit. In this segment, you will hear from Jerry about a variety of issues: an inside look at growing up in prison, the fight to prove his innocence and the collateral damage to his family, his unique perspective on our country's long-overdue reckoning with racial and criminal justice and his thoughts about the ongoing violence in his home city of Chicago. This segment is a conversation between Jerry and Lauren Kaeseberg, Illinois Innocence Project Legal Director.
7:30 – 8:00 PM ET
Organizer: California Innocence Project
Segment: What Does Fighting for Justice and Accountability Mean to Me?
Speakers: Tim Atkins, Alissa Bjerkhoel, Quintin Morris, Alex Simpson
This session will be a conversation with exonerees and former California Innocence Project clients Quintin Morris and Tim Atkins and their attorneys about the innocence issues related to their wrongful convictions and how their experience shaped their perspective.
8:00 – 8:30 PM ET
Organizer: Northern California Innocence Project & Arizona Justice Project
Segment: Walk Out for Justice
Speakers: Staff and Former Clients of Western Network Organizations + Special Guests TBA
It's time we take a stand against wrongful convictions and let the public know that October 2nd is Wrongful Conviction Day! Take this a step further and "Walk Out for Justice" in the convenience of your own community (following COVID-19 safety precautions).
8:30 – 8:45 PM ET
Organizer: Tennessee Innocence Project
Segment: Getting to Know the Tennessee Innocence Project
Speakers: Suzanne Lemaire Lozier, Jason Strong, Jessica Van Dyke
As one of the newest innocence organizations, Tennessee Innocence Project staff and board members will discuss the formation of the organization, the obstacles and hurdles to overturning wrongful convictions in Tennessee, and policy changes that could assist in assuring every person gets their fair day in court.
