Stay Up to Date

Founded in 2001, Innocence Project New Orleans has freed or exonerated dozens of people wrongly convicted or serving excessive sentences. Under executive director Jee Park, the nonprofit expanded re-entry support and launched the Unjust Punishment Project, which has already freed 28 people serving harsh terms for nonviolent crimes.

Louisiana lawmakers are weighing a bill to abolish the state’s Innocence Compensation Fund, which helps exonerees rebuild after decades in prison. Backed by Attorney General Liz Murrill, the plan would shift costs to local parishes. Advocates warn it would leave many innocent people—like Reginald Adams and Jarvis Ballard—without vital support.

Louisiana lawmakers are considering repealing the state’s wrongful conviction compensation law, which since 2005 has provided up to $480,000 to exonerees. A new version of House Bill 101 would scrap the fund entirely, shifting cases to federal civil rights lawsuits—a move critics say leaves many wrongfully convicted people without recourse.

For 24 years, Innocence Project New Orleans has helped free 75 wrongfully imprisoned people—but its director warns a new bill could block future exonerations. House Bill 572 would cut the post-conviction relief filing window in half and expand the attorney general’s power, raising fears of wrongful convictions going unchallenged.

As the state resumes executions of death row prisoners, a bill in the legislature aims to cut back on the time people convicted of crimes can spend trying to reduce or overturn their sentences, and it would vest more power over the process with the attorney general’s office.

After nearly 39 years in prison for a murder he didn’t commit, Raymond Flanks is free. Wrongly convicted in 1985 based on faulty eyewitness testimony, his case was overturned in 2022 after Innocence Project New Orleans uncovered withheld evidence. Today, Flanks is rebuilding his life with longtime love Cassandra Delpit.

Malcolm Alexander spent 38 years in prison for a crime DNA later proved he didn’t commit. Freed in 2018, he has yet to receive compensation from Louisiana’s Innocence Compensation Fund. Despite clear evidence of innocence, his petition for the $40,000-per-year award remains unresolved nearly five years later.

LIFE INSIDE My Brother Was Wrongfully Convicted for Murder. 20 Years Later, So Was My Son. Although it was a coincidence, I knew it wasn’t a mistake. What Louisiana was doing to men like my brother Elvis and my son Cedric was intentional. By EARLINE BROOKS COLBERT, as told to JAMILES LARTEY From…