Dr. Larry Golden and the Fight for Justice | Springfield News

Dr. Larry Golden ignited a movement to exonerate the wrongfully convicted, founding the Downstate Innocence Project in 2001 after being moved by exonerees’ stories. His work at Sangamon State University and later with the project combined real-world justice with education, training students to tackle actual wrongful conviction cases. As DNA tech surged in the 90s, the need for such organizations became urgent. Their efforts directly led to Illinois abolishing the death penalty in 2011, a victory rooted in human dignity and the relentless fight for freedom. In 2011, the project secured a federal grant to hire its first full-time lawyer, John Hanlon — a death row exoneree advocate who took on hundreds of cases, dedicating his life to justice until 2021. Today, innocence projects focus on cases of actual innocence, using DNA and reevaluating flawed forensics to ensure no one is wrongly convicted or executed. Listen in comfort:Get a discount on a Soli Pillow: http://solipillow.com/discount/dnn. Advertise on DNN:[email protected] This is an automated, high-level news summary based on public reporting.Report issues to [email protected]. View sources & latest updates:https://sources.thednn.ai/b8dd32759d34cff9