Speakers Bureau

We connect wrongful conviction experts with schools, colleges, companies, and organizations around the world. Our team of inspiring speakers includes people who were incarcerated for crimes they did not commit and staff members each working to correct wrongful convictions and prevent future injustices. Want to book a speaker? Please fill out our online form.

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Speakers Bureau

Featured Speaker

On March 10, 2015, Angel Gonzalez was exonerated after serving over 20 years in prison for a rape that he did not commit.

In 1994, Mr. Gonzalez was misidentified as the attacker when police used a highly unreliable and suggestive identification procedure. After he was arrested, he was misled by police into signing a false confession. Despite having four alibi witnesses testify in his defense in court, Mr. Gonzalez was wrongly convicted of aggravated sexual assault and aggravated kidnapping and was sentenced to 40 years in prison.

Although Mr. Gonzalez maintained his innocence from the beginning, it wasn’t until 2013 that he was finally able to prove his innocence through DNA testing. Today, he is a member of the Innocence Project’s Exoneree Advisory Council.

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I like to share my story because I was in hell, and the Innocence Project saved me from that hell. Unfortunately, others still are going through that hell, and they need help — together, we can get them out of that nightmare.

In May 2017, Carlos Sanchez was released after spending nearly 25 years — more than half of his life — in prison for a murder he maintains he did not commit.

Mr. Sanchez was only 17, when, after an eight-hour interrogation by police without a lawyer or guardian present, he signed a confession taking responsibility for the 1992 murder of his girlfriend. The confession was the only evidence linking him to the crime, and it was obtained under conditions now known to be associated with false confessions. The statement was also at odds with physical evidence collected in the case.

In January 2017, Mr. Sanchez was granted parole. He is still fighting to prove his innocence.

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Unpacking our experiences through hardship and trauma is part of healing. I share my story out loud and in public in order to do this unpacking on a continuous basis. In doing so, I can also be an example to others not to fear doing such self-reflections.
Exonerated and Freed People Cornelius Dupree

On April 4, 2011, Cornelius Dupree was exonerated after spending more than 30 years in prison for a 1979 rape and robbery he didn’t commit.

One week after the attack, Mr. Dupree, alongside Anthony Massingill, was stopped by police who claimed both men fit the general description of two other Black men who were suspected in a separate sexual assault case. After their photos were submitted for an identification lineup, Mr. Dupree and Mr. Massingill were misidentified as the attackers in the rape and robbery case. They were convicted in 1980, and Mr. Dupree was subsequently sentenced to 75 years in prison.

In 2010, DNA testing conclusively excluded both men as possible sources of DNA found on the survivor. The district attorney’s office agreed that the DNA evidence established Mr. Dupree’s evidence, and he was granted habeas corpus relief by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.

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After spending 30 years in prison for a crime I did not commit, I will always advocate for those behind prison walls.

On April 3, 2003, Eddie Lowery had his conviction vacated and his case dismissed after spending nine years in prison for a rape he did not commit.

In July 1981, a 74-year-old woman was attacked while sleeping in her home in Ogden, Kansas. Mr. Lowery was brought in for questioning and was interrogated all day without food so that police could procure a confession. Although he later recanted the statements, he was wrongly convicted in 1982 based on the confession and the misapplication of forensic science.

In 2002, Mr. Lowery was able to procure DNA testing on the biological evidence, and in September of that year, DNA test results confirmed his claim of innocence.

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After being wrongfully convicted. I feel it is my responsibility to inform the public about wrongful convictions. The injustice of wrongful convictions still surprises the public on how this could happen to an innocent person.
Exonerated and Freed People Fernando Bermudez
My Story
In 2009, Fernando Bermudez had his conviction overturned after spending 18 years in prison for a murder he did not commit.
In 1991, Mr. Bermudez became a suspect in the murder of a teenager outside of a nightclub in New York City after an eyewitness picked him out in a police photo lineup. Despite four alibi witnesses and no physical or forensic evidence linking him to the crime, he was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to 23 years to life in prison. The following year, all witnesses recanted their testimony.
It was not until 2009 that a judge overturned Mr. Bermudez’s conviction on “actual innocence” grounds based on police and prosecutorial misconduct. Now a passionate advocate for criminal legal reform, Mr. Bermudez shares his experience and inspiring words with audiences around the world. He is also working on a book about his ordeal.

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I share my 18-year survival story not only to prevent what happened to me from happening to others but also to inspire audiences to leave better after my talks.

On Jan. 24, 2019, Huwe Burton was exonerated after spending 19 years in prison for a murder he did not commit.

At 16 years old, Mr. Burton was convicted of the 1989 murder of his mother, who had been found stabbed to death in their New York City home. His conviction was largely based on a false confession that had been coerced by detectives.

A joint reinvestigation between the Innocence Project and the Bronx District Attorney’s Conviction Integrity Unit uncovered that detectives from New York’s 47th precinct had coerced Mr. Burton into falsely confessing. Furthermore, additional new evidence surfaced about an alternate person who committed the crime. Ultimately, Mr. Burton carried his wrongful conviction for nearly 28 years before he was exonerated.

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After being falsely arrested and convicted, I realized my strongest weapon is my voice. I would like to use it to enlighten, inspire, and ultimately change our fractured criminal justice system.

On April 23, 2007, Jerry Miller was exonerated after spending more than 24 years wrongly incarcerated for a rape that he did not commit in Illinois. He was wrongly convicted in 1982 of a rape he did not commit in Chicago largely based on eyewitness misidentification. In 2005, the Innocence Project took on Mr. Miller’s case and conducted DNA testing, which implicated another man in the case.

Mr. Miller is the 200th person in the U.S. exonerated through DNA evidence.

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The opportunity to speak of all the things that a person who becomes free, exonerated, beginning a new life is cathartic [especially when it comes to] setting the story straight after hearing for decades lies told about you. All eyes are on you. Armed with the truth, the real story is crushing the lies where they stand. This journey I've taken with the Innocence Project has been the engine that has propelled me to find my expression and to be more of a free man than in the beginning.
Exonerated and Freed People Johnny Hincapie

On Jan. 24 2017, Johnny Hincapie was exonerated in New York after spending 25 years in prison for a murder he didn’t commit.

Mr. Hincapie was wrongly convicted in 1991 largely based on a coerced confession, police misconduct, and inadequate defense. In 2013, Mr. Hincapie’s attorneys filed a post-conviction petition for a new trial, presenting new witness testimony confirming he was not involved in the murder. In 2015, a New York judge conducted a series of evidentiary hearings on the petition and later overturned Mr. Hincapie’s conviction. Two years later, prosecutors dismissed the charges.

Today, Mr. Hincapie, a gifted speaker, shares his powerful story and educates audiences across the United States on coerced confessions and criminal justice reform.

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Being part of the Speakers Bureau allows everyone in the U.S. and around the world to hear my story as an exoneree and understand the impact it has on inspiring students, attorneys, judges, and politicians to engage in this historical movement of turning injustices into justice by exonerating the wrongfully convicted.

On April 8, 2016, Keith Allen Harward was granted a writ of actual innocence by the Virginia Supreme Court after wrongly spending more than 33 years of a life sentence for a rape and murder he did not commit.

Despite testifying and presenting evidence that he didn’t match the rape survivor’s description, Mr. Harward was wrongly convicted of capital murder in 1982 based on forensic dentists’ testimony that his teeth matched the bite marks on the survivor.

In 2015, the Innocence Project obtained a court order for DNA testing of physical evidence in Mr. Harward’s case, which definitively proved his innocence and pointed to another man as the actual attacker. He is one of eight people whose story is in the Innocence Project-inspired Netflix docuseries The Innocence Files.

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The more different ways wrongful conviction can have light shine upon them, the truth can be revealed. The Speakers Bureau is a great way to reveal the truth of wrongful convictions.

On Dec. 19, 2002, Korey Wise — a member of the Exonerated Five — had his conviction overturned in New York after wrongly serving 11.5 years for a rape he did not commit in Central Park in 1989.

Mr. Wise, along with Yusef Salaam, Kevin Richardson, Antron McCray, and Raymond Santana, was wrongly convicted in 1990 based on false confessions and the misapplication of forensic science. At the time of their arrest, they were between 14 and 16 years old. In 2002, the actual attacker, who had already been serving a sentence for a series of rapes, murder, and robbery, confessed that he alone had committed the 1989 rape. DNA testing was then conducted on the crime scene evidence and corroborated the attacker’s confession.

Twenty years after Mr. Wise’s exoneration, the entrance to Central Park where he and the other members of the Exonerated Five had entered on the night of the attack was renamed the Gate of the Exonerated in their honor.

On March 21, 2012, Kristine Bunch had her conviction reversed in Indiana after wrongly serving more than 17 years for a 1995 fire that claimed her three-year-old son’s life.

Ms. Bunch was convicted in 1996 largely based on unreliable arson evidence. During her time in prison, she earned her undergraduate degrees in English and anthropology from Ball State University. In 2012, the Court of Appeals of Indiana reversed her conviction, ruling that she was entitled to a new trial due to evolving fire science and previously undisclosed evidence that contradicted a forensic analyst’s testimony at her trial.

Today, Ms. Bunch advocates for exonerees and co-runs a nonprofit organization called Justice4JustUs, which connects exonerated individuals to social and medical services to help them rebuild their lives.

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Being on the Speaker's Bureau has allowed me to meet a wide variety of people and realize that our stories have the ability to inspire people in unique ways.
Exonerated and Freed People Malcolm Alexander

On January 30, 2018, Malcolm Alexander was exonerated in Louisiana of a 1979 rape he did not commit. A reinvestigation by the Jefferson Parish District Attorney’s Office, the Innocence Project, and the Innocence Project New Orleans led to DNA testing of hair evidence that proved his innocence.

Mr. Alexander was wrongly convicted in 1980 and sentenced to life without parole largely based on eyewitness misidentification and an inadequate defense. He subsequently served 38 years in prison before he was released.

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I support the IP because of their big hearts — they believe there are innocent people incarcerated, and they believe in me. That is why I will take every opportunity I get to educate those unfamiliar with the IP.

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