Group Donates 3.2 Million to Chicago Org Founded by Exonerees
Nonprofit Life After Justice works to overturn wrongful convictions and support exonerees with mental health programs
Philanthropic group Chicago Beyond has donated $3.2 million to the nonprofit Life After Justice to help it overturn wrongful convictions and support exonerees with mental health programs. The funding significantly boosts the operations of Life After Justice, a Chicago organization founded by two exonerees that were running the organization on a volunteer basis, and help to hire its first paid staff for legal matters, including case discovery and litigation. The donation is expected to aid the group in it's advocacy and legal efforts for the wrongfully convicted, as well as supporting exonerees in reclaiming their lives after their experiences in the justice system.
Currently, the nonprofit is seeking to secure a clemency petition in Virginia for Terrence Richardson and Ferrone Claiborne, and this effort represents Life After Justice's first major legal intervention. Richardson and Claiborne have served more than 20 years in federal prison for the 1998 murder of a Virginia police officer, despite a federal jury finding them not guilty of the crime.
Life After Justice was founded by Jarrett Adams and Antione Day, two Black men whose own convictions were overturned after they each served almost a decade in prison. After Adams was exonerated, he obtained his law degree from Loyola University Chicago's School of Law and clerked with the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals; the very same court that overturned his wrongful conviction. He worked with groups like The Innocence Project, opened his own law practice, then started Life After Justice to help other exonerees.
“The disproportionate effect the criminal system is having on communities of color can only be described as persistent traumatic stress,” Adams said in a statement. “The holistic approach of LAJ is to exonerate the wrongfully convicted, pass laws that protect against wrongful convictions and provide the mental healthcare support that is desperately needed.”
To read more about Life After Justice and their advocacy efforts, visit their website.
