New initiatives aim to help the innocent fight wrongful convictions

Anthony Ways always insisted he was innocent — before he was arrested at age 19 for a 1989 murder, as officers hauled him to prison, and for the subsequent 14 years he remained incarcerated.

“Nobody listened to me,” said Ways, of Camden. “I’m saying I’m innocent. Obviously, that’s not enough. But there are no ‘innocents’ in law. Once the jury finds you guilty, you can’t claim innocence no more. Innocent people get locked in without no way to get out of penitentiary.”

He wrote his own appeals, hired his own private investigators, and eventually, got his conviction overturned when another man confessed to the crime.

He would like others to avoid his struggle. Since his 2004 release, he has advocated for the wrongfully convicted and now is championing two initiatives that would help people fighting to prove their innocence. He serves on an advisory committee for an in-the-works innocence project at Rutgers University and has advocated for legislation that would create a state commission to study the issue.

https://newjerseymonitor.com/2022/07/11/new-initiatives-aim-to-help-the-innocent-fight-wrongful-convictions/