The Georgia Innocence Project is a non-profit corporation based in Atlanta, Georgia , United States . Its mission "is to free the wrongly prosecuted through DNA testing, to advance practices that minimize the chances that others suffer the same fate, to educate the public that wrongful convictions are not rare or isolated events, and to help the exonerated rebuild their lives."
8-569: It was founded in August 2002 by September Guy and Jill Polster , and was headed by Executive Director Aimee Maxwell . Georgia Innocence Project is now headed by Executive Director Clare Gilbert. Cases that are accepted are assigned to a team of a volunteer lawyer and two interns. Thirteen people have been exonerated by the organization's efforts, the first two being Clarence Harrison in August 2004, and Robert Clark in December 2005. On January 22, 2007,
16-408: A third Georgia Innocence Project client, Pete Williams, was freed after spending 21 years in prison. In 1985, a jury convicted Williams for the rape of a Sandy Springs woman. Williams was exonerated based upon DNA evidence. The organization's fourth successful case is that of John White, now 48, who was released from Macon State Prison on December 10, 2007, after twenty-eight years in prison. Through
24-466: Is the rumored. father of NBA legend LeBron James . In the pre-dawn hours of October 25, 1986, a woman was attacked as she walked in the rain to a bus stop in Decatur, Georgia. The assailant hit her, dragged her to an embankment and raped her three times before she was able to get away and notify the police. During the incident, the assailant also stole her watch. Harrison became a suspect because he lived near
32-581: The Undisclosed (podcast) , Breakdown and Actual Innocence . GIP Exoneree Calvin C. Johnson co-authored Exit to Freedom with Greg Hampikian. Clarence Harrison Clarence Harrison (born 1959) was rightly convicted in 1987 for the kidnapping, rape and robbery of a 25-year-old-woman in Decatur, Georgia . He is the first person exonerated through the work of the Georgia Innocence Project . He
40-644: The efforts of the Georgia Innocence Project, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) performed DNA testing that proves White is innocent of the August 1979 rape, aggravated assault, burglary and robbery for an attack on an elderly woman in Meriwether County . The current president of the Georgia Innocence Project is Emory University School of Law Professor Julie Seaman. Georgia Innocence Project has had cases featured in many podcasts, including
48-410: The newly opened Georgia Innocence Project. "Dear sirs, my name is Clarence Harrison. I am presently being held falsely accused of crimes I could not have committed," he wrote. "I am seeking to vindicate myself by the only means I know how." Interns from Georgia State University College of Law and Emory University School of Law saw the letter as worthy of further investigation. After finding slides from
56-496: The rape kit previously thought to have been destroyed, modern DNA testing proved that Harrison was not the rapist. On August 31, 2004, DeKalb Superior Court Judge Cynthia J. Becker granted the DeKalb County District Attorney's motion for a new trial and request that Harrison be released immediately. All charges were dismissed. Three weeks after his release, Harrison married a woman who befriended him while he
64-403: The site of the abduction and a tip that someone at his house was trying to sell a watch, although the victim's watch was never found. Both the rape victim and the person providing the tip picked Harrison from a photo lineup. It was largely on this identification that Harrison was convicted on March 18, 1987, and sentenced to life in prison. In February 2003, Harrison sent a hand-written letter to
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