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Help Calvin Johnson celebrate eight years of freedom
Posted: June 20, 2007 5:01 pm
Eight years ago this week, Innocence Project client Calvin Johnson walked out of a prison in Georgia. He had served 16 years for a crime he didn’t commit before DNA testing finally proved his innocence.
Today, he is married and has a young daughter. He works as a supervisor for the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority, and he serves on the Innocence Project Board of Directors. He is the author of a book about his life: Exit to Freedom.
This spring, he received a Freedom & Justice Award at the Innocence Project's first annual benefit event in New York City. Click here to send Calvin an email today congratulating him on eight years of freedom.
Tags: Calvin Johnson
Georgia hearings on eyewitness identification start this week
Posted: September 18, 2007 10:09 am
A new committee of the Georgia legislature began hearing testimony yesterday on proposed state laws governing eyewitness identification procedures. Georgia Innocence Project Director Aimee Maxwell testified, as well as Innocence Project client Calvin Johnson, Jr., who was misidentified by an eyewitness and wrongfully convicted of a crime he didn’t commit.
More than 80 percent of Georgia police departments responding to a recent survey said they had no written standards for eyewitness identifications. One of the first steps to statewide identification reform is to adopt written policies following accepted procedures.
Read more: Most Georgia police have no eyewitness guidelines (Associated Press, 09/17/07)
Men freed from jail urge change in eyewitness IDs (Atlanta Journal Constitution, 09/18/07)
For the hearing schedule and more background on the new committee, visit the Georgia Innocence Project’s website.
In addition to Calvin Johnson, other Georgia exonerees will be present at today’s hearing. Read more about their cases here.
Watch video of a speech by Calvin Johnson, Jr. and an interview with Georgia exoneree Robert Clark.
Tags: Georgia, Robert Clark, Calvin Johnson, Eyewitness Identification
Events tonight in Boston, Fort Worth and New York
Posted: November 7, 2007 1:52 pm
When Innocence Project client Calvin Johnson, Jr. was convicted of a rape and burglary in 1983 in Georgia, he stood in the courtroom and said, “With God as my witness, I have been falsely accused. I’m an innocent man.”
At a lecture tonight at the Boston Museum of Science, Johnson will describe the 16 years he spent in prison before DNA testing proved his innocence, and his readjustment to life after exoneration. The lecture, which is free and open to the public, begins at 7 p.m. For more information, click here. The lecture is part of the museum's "CSI: The Experience" exhibition, which introduces visitors to forensic science used by law enforcement officials.
And a free production of the the hit play “The Exonerated” is scheduled for tonight in Fort Worth, Texas, at the Fort Worth Academy of Fine Arts. Read a column about the play in today’s Forth Worth Star-Telegram.
Another production of the play is continuing through this weekend in New York. Innocence Project Staff Attorney Alba Morales will speak on a panel following the Nov. 10 performance. Read more here.
Tags: Calvin Johnson
Nine years of freedom for Atlanta man
Posted: June 16, 2008 3:54 pm
Nine years ago, Calvin Johnson was freed from a Georgia prison after serving more than 15 years for a crime he didn’t commit. Today, he has a wife and daughter, he serves on the boards of the Innocence Project and the Georgia Innocence Project, he has published a memoir, “Exit to Freedom,” and he works as a supervisor for the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority. Last year he received the Innocence Project’s first Freedom & Justice Award, and spoke at the ceremony about the suffering he endured while wrongfully incarcerated and the slow process of rebuilding a life after release. Watch his speech here.
Today, Johnson says he is proud to be a leader in the innocence movement and a mentor to newly released exonerees. But he also wants to see more states – including his own – pass laws to support exonerees as they face the hard road of building a new life after years, or decades, away from society. While three states (Connecticut, Florida and Utah) have enacted new compensation laws in the last two months, Johnson’s home state of Georgia is still one of the 25 states without a law compensating the exonerated upon their release. And among the 25 states with compensation laws, many are woefully outdated and inadequate.
Other exoneration anniversaries this week:
Sunday: Jerry Townsend, Florida (Served 21.5 years, Exonerated 6/15/01)
Tuesday: Kenneth Wyniemko, Michigan (Served 8.5 Years, Exonerated 6/17/03)
Friday: Kevin Green, California (Served 15.5 years, Exonerated 6/20/96)
Saturday: James Giles, Texas (Served 10 years, Exonerated 6/21/07)
Armand Villasana, Missouri (Served 7 months, Exonerated 6/21/00)
Tags: James Giles, Kevin Green, Calvin Johnson, Armand Villasana, Kenneth Wyniemko
Friday Roundup: Freedom and Compensation
Posted: February 20, 2009 5:26 pm
News in the world of wrongful convictions this week was dominated by the release of a watershed report by the National Academy of Sciences, but there was plenty going on elsewhere, too. Here’s a roundup of the week’s news that we didn’t get to on the Innocence Blog:
Innocence Project Policy Analyst Rebecca Brown testified before a Nebraska legislative committee about the importance of compensation laws for the wrongfully convicted. Also testifying were Joseph White and JoAnn Taylor, two defendants from the “Beatrice Six” case who spent two decades behind bars for a murder and rape they didn’t commit before DNA freed them last year.
Jonathan Kezer was freed Wednesday after serving 16 years in Missouri prison for a murder he has always said he didn’t commit. An investigation led by the local sheriff uncovered the evidence that cleared Kezer.
Buffalo News columnist Rod Watson this week pondered the fate of detective Dennis Delano, whose cold case investigations helped clear two people – Anthony Capozzi and Lynn DeJac – after serving they had served years in prison. Delano is currently suspended from the department and faces disciplinary action for allegedly breaking department rules and sharing confidential information with the media.
Georgia exoneree Calvin Johnson will speak on Sunday at a special event hosted by the Georgia Innocence Project. Johnson served more than 15 years in prison for a rape he didn’t commit before DNA testing proved his innocence in 1999.
And a California student newspaper profiled Northern California Innocence Project Director Cookie Ridolfi. "It's very frustrating when you know that you have a case where something very unfair happened and you can't right that wrong," she said. "It's very common. But when you can change somebody's life, it makes it all worthwhile."
Tags: Calvin Johnson
Calvin Johnson Marks a Decade of Freedom
Posted: June 15, 2009 3:07 pm
Today marks the tenth anniversary of the day Calvin Johnson was freed from a Georgia prison after serving nearly 16 years for a rape DNA proves he didn’t commit. A profile of his case – and his work in the innocence movement – ran this morning in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Read more here.
Other Exoneration Anniversaries This Week:
Monday: Jerry Frank Townsend, Florida (Served 21.5 Tears, Exonerated 6/15/01)
Wednesday: Kenneth Wyniemko, Wisconsin (Served 8.5 Years, Exonerated 6/17/03)
Saturday: Kevin Green, California (Served 15.5 Years, Exonerated 1996)
Tags: Calvin Johnson