Justice foundation seeking holiday donations

Listen to this article

The Jeffrey Deskovic Foundation for Justice will launch a crowdfunding campaign on Nov. 24 in hopes of raising $250,000.

The money will be used to further the foundation’s mission of exonerating the wrongfully convicted, helping exonerees re-integrate after years of wrongful imprisonment, and educating the public on wrongful convictions through advocacy, policy reform and sharing best practices on the front lines of law enforcement including police academies, the judiciary, prosecutors and defense attorneys.

The Jeffrey Deskovic Foundation for Justice was established as a result of Deskovic’s own wrongful conviction of raping and murdering a fellow high school student in 1991 in Westchester County when he was 17. Deskovic was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison. Sixteen years later, in 2006, he was cleared of the crime after DNA evidence identified the actual perpetrator, who, in the meantime, had murdered another woman.

After his release, Deskovic earned a bachelor’s degree in behavioral science from Mercy College and his master’s from John Jay College of Criminal Justice. In March of 2012, after finally having the personal means to do so, Deskovic acted on the dream he had since his release: Establishing an organization to help free the innocent who are or have been wrongfully imprisoned, while working to prevent it from happening in the first place.

The Indiegogo campaign for the foundation will run until Dec. 29. For more information, visit http://bit.ly/DeskovicLP.