Today, a new show premiered on Netflix called the Innocence Files, which is a documentary series focusing on the work that Innocence Project does to exonerate wrongfully convicted people. This is a subject incredibly important to me because when I was 7, my father was wrongfully convicted of terrible crimes. I was 12-years-old and spent years of my childhood visiting him in a maximum security prison, being put through the DCF system, and hating myself for not being able to comprehend how this could happen to someone who was innocent. This happened in 2007, way before the days of interrogations having to be filmed (Obama passed that law later on). There was no DNA in his case, so my father had to take a plea bargain in return for a reduced sentence.
What happened to my father was on track to destroy me until I got older & wiser, and found the Innocence Project. Then I realized this happens to 10,000 people + yearly. Thanks to Pop’s, another nonprofit in LA, I’ve been able to meet many other young people who also had someone they knew incarcerated. Every conviction is different, no child should have to witness what many of us have and what many do who have a family member (wrongfully convicted or not) incarcerated.
If there’s ONE positive outcome that happened from what happened, it’s my career path. I hope I prove to you that you have two paths you can take in your life, regardless of what happens to you: and YOU determine which path you choose to go down.
The system might fail you, but you can’t fail yourself.
I highly encourage you watch this show and become cautious of where the justice system still has faults, and how corrupt it is even to this day.
Watching these kind of shows is a bit of a trigger for me, so I don’t usually watch shows like this, but I do my part to speak about them and participate behind the scenes. At the end of this video I mention a few incredible people whom I’ve met since I became involved with the Innocence Project. I hope you enjoy this series and I know Innocence Project would love any tweets if you want to tell them your thoughts on the show on Twitter!
