The Jeffrey Deskovic Foundation for Justice

The Jeffrey Deskovic Foundation for Justice is a 501 C 3 organization whose mission is to free prisoners who are incarcerated for crimes that they are innocent of, as well as prevent wrongful convictions by raising awareness and seeking changes in the law designed to make the system more accurate. Wrongful convictions occur much more frequently than what most people&nbsp;in society realize. In 2015, 149 people were exonerated, while 139 were in 2014, while 91 people were in both 2013 and 2012. A recent Wayne State University estimates that 10,000 new people are wrongfully convicted each year, while other publications reference that between 50,000 to 120,000 people are wrongfully imprisoned across the country. The National Registry of Exonerations, which tracks exonerations nationally, has thus far documented, from 1991 forward, 2448&nbsp;exonerations as of this writing. Who is Jeffrey Deskovic, and why did he start a Foundation for Justice? Jeffrey Deskovic, M.A., spent 16 years in prison-from age 17 to 32- wrongfully convicted of murder and rape, despite a pre-trial negative DNA test, based upon a coerced false confession, prosecutorial misconduct, fraud by the medical examiner, and an inept public defender. He lost all seven appeals and was turned down for parole. Jeff was exonerated by further DNA Testing through the DNA databank which identified the actual perpetrator, who had killed a second victim who was a school teacher and mother of two. After receiving some financial compensation for what happened to him, and unable to forget about the people whom he metaphorically left behind, Jeff committed $1.5 million dollars to launch the organization. But although he has been very generous in donating that money, he cannot carry the organization on his own. The Foundation currently has 600 cases that are awaiting screening to determine if the organization believes in their innocence claim, along with whether it believes that there is a way that it can prove the applicants innocence. There are additionally 15-20 new requests for help that come in every week. Jeff's&nbsp;story can be encapsulated in the following 1 minute, 31 seconds video: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXtsdpCmNb8" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXtsdpCmNb8</a> Results and&nbsp;Uniqueness In it's 6 years of existence, The Foundation has freed 7 wrongfully convicted people, while a eighth person recently had their conviction overturned and is awaiting a retrial.&nbsp; Highlights have included: exonerating William Lopez, who had been wrongfully imprisoned for 23 1/2 years; exonerating William Haughey, who had been wrongfully imprisoned 8 years and 4 months; helping to pass legislation to record interrogations and improve identification procedures; playing a key role in helping to pass legislation creating the countries first Commission On Prosecutorial Conduct [an independent oversight board reviewing allegations of prosecutorial misconduct] and Discovery Reform, taking NY from having one of the worst discovery laws to one of the best. We also created, "The Thinking Juror's manual." What makes the Foundation unique is: 1) it handles both DNA and Non-DNA cases; 2) it advocates policy changes other organizations privately agree with us about but won't advocate for; 3) we utilize parole as a stop-gap measure (we are 4 for 8 on such efforts); 4) we are the only organization started by an exoneree which has an exonerative component. Jeff's expertise. Upon release, Jeff became a tireless advocate for the wrongfully convicted whose body of work includes: giving more than 100 presentations across the country; authoring more than 200 articles; giving hundreds of print, radio, and television interviews; educating elected officials and testifying at legislative hearings in NY, Connecticut, and D.C. Thanks to a scholarship from Mercy College, he completed the B.A., and in 2013 he graduated with a Masters Degree from the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, which included a thesis written on wrongful conviction prevention. He co-taught a wrongful conviction college course at Rockland Community College, and has lectured at: police academies; judicial seminars; defense bars; and groups of prosecutors. Here is Jeff's bio: <a href="http://www.chartwellspeakers.com/speaker/jeffrey-deskovic" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">http://www.chartwellspeakers.com/speaker/jeffrey-d...</a> Jeff recently graduated with a law degree from the Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University.&nbsp;&nbsp; In recognition of his advocacy work, Jeff has received New York 1's "New Yorker of the Year" award [<a href="http://bit.ly/1LP8kLe" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">http://bit.ly/1LP8kLe</a>] ; "Humanitarian of the Year" from the New Rochelle Chamber of Commerce [<a href="http://bit.ly/1KvkNC1" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">http://bit.ly/1KvkNC1</a>]; the Agent of Change Award [<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HKdVvqeAcQ&amp;t=52s" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?&lt;wbr&gt;v=2HKdVvqeAcQ&amp;t=52s</a>];&nbsp;the 2018 Distinguished Alumn Award from the John Jay College of Criminal Justice [<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2Wc6085YYw&amp;t=1009s" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?&lt;wbr&gt;v=z2Wc6085YYw&amp;t=1009s</a>]&nbsp;and the Private Sector Servant of Justice Award [<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkgA4z_QJH4&amp;t=22s" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?&lt;wbr&gt;v=xkgA4z_QJH4&amp;t=22s</a>] Jeff's attendance at the NY State Legislature just before the final vote to pass the Commission On Prosecutor Conduct was recognized and his case cited as a reason why elected officials were voting for the bill:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uu2a-PSCCyQ&amp;t=590s" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?&lt;wbr&gt;v=Uu2a-PSCCyQ&amp;t=590s</a> Here is a touching video that the NY Times made, which focuses on the devastating impact that wrongful conviction had on Jeff: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32OuEsGZzb4" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32OuEsGZzb4</a> &nbsp; We are on Patreon to build a sustainable donor base to support our work of preventing wrongful convictions and helping to free the wrongfully convicted. The Foundation will regularly post content monthly. This will include: an update on advocacy work engaged in; links to television and radio interviews the Foundation does; upcoming speaking engagements; op-eds;&nbsp;training seminars conducted; proposals submitted; general updates from the organization; exonerations. If it's advocacy work that was engaged in, in whatever form, The Foundation will give it's patrons updates. The Foundation believes that, in order to be sustainable, it needs the assistance of recurring small monthly donations- imagine if we had 25,000 people who could afford to donate $5 every month, or even $3, what we could do??!!- as well as large donors, board members who have large giving capacity, grants, and professional organizations who can donate in-kind donations. We welcome the assistance of those who have radio and television shows, podcasts,&nbsp;other platforms, and&nbsp;audiences for&nbsp;speaking engagements through which we can reach their audience to explain the urgency of our work and ask their assistance, even if it is only at the level of $5. If we all do a little, a lot can be accomplished!!! The Foundation would like to add 5 board members who have the capacity to write a large check of&nbsp; a minimum of $100,000 while opening their personal network of people of similar ability. Interested parties should email the Foundation through it's website <a href="http://www.Deskovic.org" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">www.Deskovic.org</a> , as should large donors who are interested and professional organizations who can donate in-kind services, for which they can receive a tax write off.&nbsp; We also welcome the assistance of those who can help us increase our visibility, including referencing our campaign, including through the medium of: blogging; blog talk radio; social media; and media interviews- no entity or audience is too small!&nbsp; We also give presentations at colleges, universities, law schools, high schools, community organizations, and organizations for criminal justice professionals- wherever and however we can get the word out there about this most important cause, which our Founder knows about all too well. Having finally established his innocence and regained his freedom, he is eager for his non-profit organization to continue it's work at freeing others!

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