Prison Letters Project
Letters Database
With the permission and participation of incarcerated people who write to us, we are logging their letters into a public database.
Letter Category
- Abuse of Judicial Discretion
- Actual Innocence
- Alternate Confession
- Attorney & Judicial Error
- Batson Violation
- Brady Violation
- Coerced Confession
- Coercion
- Coercion of Witnesses
- DNA Evidence
- Double Jeopardy
- Due Process Violation
- Evidence Tampering
- Excessive Charging & Sentence
- False Statements by Law Enforcement
- False Testimony
- Forensic Issue
- Improper Arrest Procedure
- Improper Statements by Defense Counsel
- Ineffective Assistance of Counsel
- Innocence
- Insufficient Evidence at Trial
- Interrogation
- Judicial Error
- Jury Instruction Error
- Juvenile
- Loss of Evidence
- Mishandling of Evidence
- Newly Discovered Evidence
- No Knock Warrant
- Parole
- Perjured Testimony
- Pro Se Representation
- Prosecutorial Misconduct
- Racial Discrimination
- Speedy Trial Issue
- Unfair Sentencing
- Unlawful Search and Seizure
- Withheld Evidence
- Wrongful Conviction
- Wrongful conviction & innocence
G.V. writing from Florida
“I learned that the CT scan report of the victim did not show any injuries which were alleged by the medical examiner. I could have received a new trial years ago based on illegitimate grounds of appeal. however, I never raised the grounds as I did not know the law back then.”
J.S. writing from Ohio
“The video camera evidence and knife in the photograph[ic] evidence all disappeared and/or [were] purposely not collected. Something happened to all of the evidence in my favor. It was either altered, destroyed[,] not collected and/or purposely lost.”
R.B. writing from Indiana
“I hope and pray that you can help with this injustice because I am truly innocent.”
M.C. writing from Texas
"In my case, the forensic evidence used against me are worth reconsidering. There is a reasonable probability my infant daughter died a SIDS related death and not a smothering death...[The State's forensic scientist] was admonished on several occasions [for] wholly misrepresenting the cause of death to the jury."
Disclaimer
Information appearing in the database reflects our understanding of letter-writers' situations and legal claims based on our correspondence with them, and may not be complete and comprehensive.
If you are interested in learning more about a particular person's case or connecting with them, please write us at prisonlettersproject@yale.edu
Connect with and support the letter-writers!
The Prison Letters Project hopes for and welcomes interest from people who want to learn more about these stories.
If you would like to be connected to a particular letter-writer for the purpose of providing representation, writing about their story, offering other support, or simply learning more about their case, please reach out to us using this form.
Alternatively, you can write to us at:
Prison Letters Project, c/o Emily Bazelon, Yale Law School, 127 Wall Street, New Haven, CT 06511.