CLEVELAND — Ward 7 Councilman Basheer Jones will be joined by criminal justice reform advocates to bring awareness to the number of innocent people wrongfully convicted of crimes and sent to prison.
The press conference is scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. at East 79th Street and Hough Avenue. Watch it live in the media player below:
Jones will be joined by officials of the Ohio Innocence Project whose mission is to free people who remain unjustly incarcerated.
“So many innocent people have been robbed of their freedoms,” said Councilman Jones. “This is unacceptable in a civilized society. The United States of America is not a banana republic.”
Since 1989, 2,671 people who were convicted of crimes and sentenced to prison in the United States have been exonerated. Of that number, 103 were convicted in Ohio and 30 were convicted in Cuyahoga County, according to the National Registry of Exonerations.
