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
J.S. writing from New York
“My evidence and case is the poster child of [prosecutorial] misconduct yet they are still trying to absolve themselves.”
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.”
M.D. writing from Pennsylvania
“I’ve been unjustly incarcerated for almost half a century.”
T.Y. writing from California
“I am an innocent man who has been on death row since my wrongful conviction in 2006.”
M.M. writing from Illinois
"I've been pro se in the courts so I am continuously railroaded. I have all the proof you need to know that I am dead serious. There are so many High Stakes Players involved in my case... That why these people treat me like a colored person in the 1950's South."
K.R. writing from New York
“My trial attorney never investigated my claim of actual innocence… A core function of defense counsel is to investigate and assess potentially exculpatory evidence.”
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.”
J.G. writing from Texas
“I have many issues on my case. All of them point to my innocence.”
L.L. writing from New York
Legal assistance needed
B.A. writing from Missouri
Legal assistance needed
L.F. writing from New York
“I sincerely hope you will help me dismantle the rubberstamping of these convictions by reminding the courts what the standards of beyond a reasonable doubt is.”
G.B. writing from New York
“I think there is perhaps a natural tendency to think with the white male, “Here’s a young person with no prior problems with the law. I don’t want to destroy his future.” There may not be the same feelings for the black male, just a sense that he is not going to go that far anyway.”
R.B. writing from Indiana
“I hope and pray that you can help with this injustice because I am truly innocent.”
M.R. writing from Illinois
“I am an innocent man. I did not commit this crime.”
D.M. writing from Texas
“Since my trial I’ve discovered a report generated by police acknowledging mistakes made surrounding the testing of ballistics evidence...sooner or later the truth will come out. It hurts ‘cause my two youngest daughters want me home.”
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."
R.G. writing from Texas
“Since I was discharged in 2008, I have been back to prison three times for not registering… [I] was asked why I did not want to register. The answer I gave them was I will not register to something I am not.”
M.B. writing from Indiana
“I never had a chance to prepare a defense against all these elements.”
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.