Adnan Sultan, a senior staff attorney at the Innocence Project, litigates post-conviction cases nationwide to secure DNA testing and overturn wrongful convictions. He also teaches in the Innocence Project clinic at Cardozo.  

Prior to joining the Innocence Project, he worked as a staff attorney at The Bronx Defenders for five where he represented thousands of clients charged with misdemeanors and felony crimes from arraignments to trial. In addition, he was a member of the Bronx Defenders’ Forensic Practice Group where he consulted with attorneys and conducted trainings on DNA evidence. Before working at the Bronx Defenders, Adnan was a Prettyman Fellow at Georgetown Law School, where he both represented clients charged with misdemeanor and felony crimes in D.C. Superior Court and supervised third-year law students in Georgetown’s Criminal Justice Clinic. He graduated from American University’s Washington College of Law.

“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.”

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.

“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 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.