The Innocence Project

The Way of Justice
By Emily Lyons, Chair of Saint Philip’s Prison Ministry

As Episcopalians, we pray daily to God to “guide us in the way of justice and truth.” One way we can seek justice and truth is by educating ourselves about the injustices that pervade our society, and using that knowledge to work against injustice. This is fundamental to the mission of Prison Ministry.

To that end, Saint Philip’s Prison Ministry is honored to welcome Vanessa Buch as our guest speaker at 11:30am this Sunday, September 22, in the Murphey Gallery. Dr. Buch is a law professor, human rights lawyer, and the founder and director of the Innocence Project at the University of Arizona.

The forum’s format will include time for Q&A following Dr. Buch’s presentation.

Misconceptions about the criminal justice system abound. These fallacies feed into the stigma that people with a criminal record live with. And in far too many cases, people are punished and stigmatized even when they are innocent.

According to the Innocence Project, as many as 5% of people currently incarcerated in the United States are serving time for crimes they didn’t commit. Even if as few as 1% of people in prison have been wrongfully convicted, that means more than 200,000 innocent people are currently behind bars.

How do innocent people end up in prison? Because of our broken criminal legal system.

The Innocence Project has identified several ways that this system routinely breaks down, leading to wrongful convictions. Police and prosecutorial misconduct, improper use of forensic science, misidentification resulting from fallible witnesses or flawed surveillance technology, lack of access to adequate legal defense, coerced confessions and pleas are just some of the factors contributing to these failures of justice.

As troubling as the facts are, there is hope for change.

This Sunday, Dr. Buch will speak about how initiatives like the Innocence Project are working to bring the scales of justice back into balance, and what members of the community can do to support this critical work. We invite you to join us for what is sure to be an illuminating conversation.

For more information about Prison Ministry at Saint Philip’s, email me at elyons@arizona.edu.