The 2016 Injustice Anywhere Winter Newsletter is now available for online viewing and download. We were highly encouraged by the increased number of exonerations seen in 2015, and we are hopeful the trend will continue its upward swing.

According to the National Registry of Exonerations, 2015 was a record year for correcting wrongful convictions. The registry recorded 149 exonerations in the United States, which broke the previous year’s record of 125. Fifty four of the exonerees on the 2015 list were wrongfully convicted of murder. Disturbingly, five of those exonerees were on death row.

These numbers show that we are on the right track, but we have a long way to go. We need to correct the mistakes we have made, and we also need to do the crucial work of reforming the system which allowed those mistakes to occur in the first place. If we fail to enact reform, we will continue to send innocent people to prison, which is unacceptable for any nation that expects to be viewed as civilized.

Injustice Anywhere had a productive year in 2015. Our main website received a major overhaul, making it more efficient and user friendly. We moved our radio show from Blogtalkradio to Spreaker, which opened the door to a wider listening audience. And we worked to relaunch groundreport.com, a citizen journalism website which allows us to continue publishing informative articles on a news platform recognized by Google News.

Injustice Anywhere was thrilled to see positive results for three of our featured cases in 2015. Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito were exonerated in Italy, Debra Milke was exonerated in Arizona, and Russ Faria was exonerated in Missouri. We also had our eye on several other cases throughout the year, including Barry Beach and the Fairbanks Four. We did radio shows on both of those cases and we were happy to see them finally end in freedom.

Sadly, the wrongful conviction problem is far more pervasive than most people realize, and even with increased interest in wrongful convictions over the past few years, most cases continue to lack the attention they warrant. These cases go far beyond the few our organization is able to feature and endorse.

Please download our 2016 Winter Newsletter to learn more about Injustice Anywhere. If you like what we stand for, we encourage you to get involved. Many innocent people continue to suffer in prison. They need others to be their voice. You have the power to give them a voice. You can make a difference. Please join us in the fight to free the innocent.

https://www.injusticeanywhere.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/WinterNewsletter2016.pdf

http://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/lake-county-news-sun/news/ct-lns-day-care-murder-court-hearing-st-0109-20160108-story.html

A Lake County judge on Friday did not rule on a state motion that aims to prevent an imprisoned former day care worker from getting a new trial in the 2009 death of a Deerfield toddler.

Instead, Judge Daniel Shanes gave Melissa Calusinski’s defense team 60 days to respond to the state’s motion. Shanes then set a new court date for March 11 and gave no indication a ruling would be made that day.

Attorneys for Calusinski, 29, of Carpentersville, filed a motion this summer seeking to have her murder conviction thrown out, contending that evidence discovered since her trial indicates that the child — 16-month-old Benjamin Kingan — died from pre-existing head injuries, not from Calusinski slamming him to the floor at a Lincolnshire day care center, as prosecutors alleged.

Read More »

http://www.wdef.com/news/story/Adam-Braseel-Closer-to-Freedom-After-Murder/DKQGcvvD6kGxgNjT_VJGMw.cspx

ALTAMONT, Tenn. (WDEF) – A Grundy County man is a step closer to being released from state prison for a 2005 murder.

Adam Braseel was convicted for the beating and robbery of Malcom Burrows ten years ago.

But, just in time for Christmas, a judge granted him a new trial.

Today Braseel was back in court asking to be released on bond while he waits for his trial.

The Grundy County Herald reports that the judge lowered his bond to $50,000, which his family says he will make.

As of Friday afternoon, he was still in custody at the Riverbend Maximum Security Facility in Nashville, waiting for the bond to be clear.

http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/victim-recants-id-that-put-man-in-prison-for-mother/article_503a9500-b913-5a2f-b655-ff822f62f917.html

ST. LOUIS • A hair match and the memory of a traumatized 7-year-old girl put Rodney Lincoln away for two life sentences plus 15 years after a brutal attack three decades ago that left the child and her sister critically injured and their mother dead.

The faulty hair analysis was disproved years ago. Other physical evidence, since tested, failed to tie Lincoln to the crime.

But prosecutors never stopped believing the testimony of the girl, who watched the horror unfold in the early morning hours of April 27, 1982, at the family’s Farrar Street apartment.

She is now grown up. And in recent days, she said she realized her memory was wrong. Read More »

DEER LODGE – A Montana man who spent three decades behind bars for a murder he says he did not commit walked out of prison Friday after the governor granted his clemency request.

Barry Beach, 53, told reporters gathered outside the Montana State Prison’s front door that the moment was “surreal.”

“I knew it was going to be here someday,” Beach said. “The good Lord in heaven has always assured me that I’d reach this point. I never dreamed it was going to take this long.” Read More »

http://fox2now.com/2015/11/17/russ-farias-story-takes-the-national-stage-this-week/

[embedyt] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wcchCzwfm4[/embedyt]