With almost 88 years collectively lost to wrongful incarceration, our Exoneree Leadership group of Jarrett Adams, Antione Day, Tyra Patterson, Anna Vasquez, and Ramon Ward know and understand the horrors inflicted by our failing legal system. They returned home with no resources, no support, and no idea how to navigate a world that advanced greatly while they were wrongly imprisoned.

Turning their anguish into action, our exoneree leadership created Life After Justice (LAJ) to amplify the voices of those most harmed by the legal system and to power change. Their aim is not only to help those who have been wrongfully convicted in the past, but also to end wrongful convictions in the future. Until the goal of preventing wrongful incarceration is met, LAJ will walk hand in hand with exonerees as they take steps necessary to reclaim not only their freedoms but also their lives.

LAJ advocates for the release of individuals wrongfully convicted and establishes an ecosystem of support for their successful reentry into their home communities LAJ offers a three-pronged approach for systemic change and recovery, focused on policy driven litigation, economic justice advocacy, and “After Justice” empowerment support. It’s not enough to just survive. From fighting to bring exonerees home to providing much needed mental health support, LAJ aims to help exonerees thrive and start to put their lives back together one step at a time.

Meet our Exoneree Leadership.

Will you help exonerees reclaim their lives? Please consider gifting LAJ with an 100% tax deductible donation. Every dollar will help us launch and increase our impact! Please reach out to us with any questions.

Life After Justice is a 501c(3) public charity - tax ID #01064823

Through its litigation arm, LAJ works to exonerate individuals by mounting procedural and substantive, evidence-based challenges to wrongful convictions.  LAJ targets both DNA and  non-DNA based wrongful conviction cases which push forth case law that attacks the failures of the legal system at its core. While it may be an unrealistic goal to render the legal system void of irreversible error, LAJ uses each case to shine a light on the commonly known causes of wrongful convictions (e.g. eyewitness misidentification, false confessions, witness perjury, false or misleading forensic evidence, etc.) as support for much needed reform.  By focusing on those most harmed by the legal system, LAJ hopes to convert that harm into inspiration for very necessary change and reform. 

The fight does not end, however, with a court’s announcement that a conviction has been overturned or vacated.  In fact, it is just beginning. LAJ tackles other legal issues which require immediate attention after an exoneree receives some sort of justice in the courtroom.  For example, a person wrongfully imprisoned may have had their credit ruined, owe back child support payments for the duration of their incarceration, loss of veteran benefits or face any number of unimaginable or bizarre legal issues (i.e. long overdue parking tickets and other financial hardships). Once in the fight, LAJ continues to stand as a resource after justice and advocate for exonerees’ thriving reentry.

LAJ is a member of the Innocence Network’s Exoneree Policy Working Group, where we develop ideas for aftercare and compensation proposals at the state and federal level. LAJ will help to identify the social services needed at the state level for exonerees so these ideas be folded into policy proposals. LAJ will partner with the Innocence Project on state-based compensation legislative efforts, e.g. help write op-eds form the voices of impacted people; testify at hearings; inform proposals. 

Currently only 35 of 50 states + the District of Columbia have some sort of statute which provides exonerees with compensation based on the number of wrongfully incarcerated years. For most, compensation statutes are an exoneree’s only means of obtaining economic justice.

LAJ advocates for change at every level, state and federal, ensuring that each state has a compensation statute that is accessible via a streamlined state court driven process not hampered by lengthy and confusing administrative processes or other judicial barriers.

Exonerees are not the only ones that have been robbed of irreplaceable time.  Countless family members suffer due to the human size hole created when their loved ones were stolen from their lives, from their communities. LAJ endeavors to push legislation and policy that grants visibility and support for families that suffer harm in connection with the lost years from their loved ones.

While it is typical for exoneree’s original cases to receive media  attention and be given much fanfare, those flashing lights and inquiring reporters are typically not present when an exoneree’s conviction is overturned. This invisible justice leaves the majority of exonerees without any resources to take back their lives. Family members may have died.  Friends have lost touch.  More than 50% of exonerees do not receive any compensation or other support upon release. With no financial resources and no human support network, these individuals face another basic challenge – “returning” to a society profoundly changed by technology and seemingly impossible to navigate.  LAJ aims to ensure that each exoneree released from prison feels seen and supported with the gift of an “After Justice Empowerment” pack containing much needed donated items such as a laptop, cell phone, transportation card and a slew of gift cards from a variety of retails, which empower the exoneree to purchase basic necessities.

As a critical piece of our After Justice efforts, we aim to build a community of mental health support for exonerees. Of the current known exonerations, innocent people spend an average of 8 years, 10 months in prison before release. Even if it’s just a day, it is impossible to articulate the gravity or impact of what that time lost means to each exoneree. The very first step in helping an exoneree reclaim his or her life is the intervention of proper psychotherapy.  In partnership with Dr. Darlene Perry, a leading clinical and forensic psychologist in forensic mental health, LAJ aims to develop and provide access to a pool of mental health professionals with experience and expertise best matched with an exoneree’s unique experience and needs.