Oct 22, 2021
This episode was recorded in November of 2020.
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What made you want to be a guest on the "Nowhere To Go But Up Podcast?
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I was recommended by James Saenz, after I was interviewed by him on
his podcast, "From The Dust".
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I want to get my story out there, the work that I do at my
non-profit organization, "The Jeffrey Deskovic Foundation for Justice", which
frees wrongfully convicted people and works for policy changes
aimed at preventing wrongful conviction in the first place. We have
freed 8 people, and helped pass 7 laws.
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I also wanted to be able to help get the word out about the
documentary short about me, entitled, "Conviction", which is
currently making the rounds in film festivals, having gotten into
10 of them.
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Here is my story: I spent 16 years in prison-from age 17-32- before
DNA testing exonerated me of murder and rape. Upon my release, I
have become an advocate whose life is dedicated to freeing people
who have been wrongfully convicted as I was, along with pursuing
legislative changes aimed at preventing those injustices in the
first place. I started a non-profit organization,
The Jeffrey Deskovic Foundation
for Justice, using some of the money that I won as compensation for
what happened to me, and we have been able to free 7 people and
help pass 3 laws. As an advisory board member of a coalition group
called It Could Happen To You, we were able to help pass 3
additional laws and we now have chapters in 2 other states. Lastly,
I serve on the Global Advisory Council of Restorative Justice
International. Since my release, I have become a recognized
advocate, with a body of work consisting of delivering 200
presentation, authoring more than 200 articles, doing an
uncountable number of media interviews, and meeting with many
elected officials. I obtained a BA, a Masters Degree, and in May of
2019 I graduated law school and passed the bar exam, in pursuit of
my dream of exonerating others as an attorney.
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Here is a short 1 minute 31 second video of my story: https://www.youtube.com/watch?
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Here is an article that was written once I graduated law
school: https://www.lohud.com/story/
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A short documentary about my story was recently released on
Amazon: https://smile.amazon.com/dp/
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You can find Jeffery here:
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Website:
https://www.deskovicfoundation.org/
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