Ahead of the Stern Lecture event this fall, the public is invited to hear attorneys and exonerated individuals talk during “Wrongfully Convicted: Stories from the Ohio Innocence Project (OIP).” The guest speakers are telling their stories and about OIP’s efforts to free innocent people in prison and prevent wrongful convictions. “Wrongfully Convicted” starts at 7 p.m. Thursday, July 25, in the Harriet Tubman Theater at the Underground Railroad Freedom Center. It is free and open to the public, however registration is required.
This is a lead-up event to the Mary S. Stern Lecture with Bryan Stevenson, Wednesday, Oct. 2, at 7 p.m. at the Aronoff Center for the Arts. Tickets go on sale in Aug. 5 for the Stern Lecture. The Stern Lecture is made possible through an endowment to The Library Foundation of Cincinnati and Hamilton County. For more information on this event and the Stern Lecture, visit CincinnatiLibraryFoundation.org. For more information on this speaker, visit www.prhspeakers.com.
“We’re delighted to partner with the Library to discuss the important topic of wrongful convictions and to introduce the exonerees whose stories are told in the new opera Blind Injustice,” said Jennifer Paschen Bergeron, the deputy director of the Ohio Innocence Project at the University of Cincinnati College of Law. Bergeron is speaking at the event along with six exonerated people OIP has helped.
“We hope that people will take away from the event a better understanding about how wrongful convictions occur, the challenges involved in proving innocence, and the incredible grace and resilience of our exonerees,” said Bergeron.
About the Ohio Innocence Project
The Rosenthal Institute for Justice was established at the UC College of Law, where the Ohio Innocence Project was founded in 2003. Harnessing the energy and intellect of law students as its driving force, the OIP seeks to identify inmates in Ohio prisons who are innocent of the crimes they were convicted of committing. Since its inception, OIP’s work has led to the release of 28 wrongfully convicted Ohioans, who collectively served over 525 years behind bars, making OIP one of the top-performing members among the international Innocence Network.
About National Underground Railroad Freedom Center
The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center opened in August 2004 on the banks of the Ohio River in downtown Cincinnati, Ohio. Since then, more than 1.3 million people have visited its permanent and changing exhibits and public programs, inspiring everyone to take courageous steps for freedom. Two million people have utilized educational resources online at freedomcenter.org, working to connect the lessons of the Underground Railroad to inform and inspire today’s global and local fight for freedom. Partnerships include Historians Against Slavery, Polaris Project, Free the Slaves, US Department of State and International Justice Mission. In 2014, the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center launched a new online resource in the fight against modern slavery, endslaverynow.org.
