Black History Month 2026---Racial inequality still rampant in our criminal legal system!

I’m sure you’ve heard of the Innocence Project. My first encounter with this organization was in the mid-1990s, when the University of Wisconsin IP provided invaluable assistance as we tried to prove the innocence of Maurice Carter. 

Founded in 1992 by visionary attorneys Peter Neufeld and Barry Scheck, the Innocence Project has been at the forefront of criminal justice reform, using DNA and other scientific advancements to prove wrongful conviction. The Innocence Project works to free the innocent, prevent wrongful convictions, and create fair, compassionate, and equitable systems of justice for everyone. These wonderful people have helped free more than 250 innocent people from prison! 

That’s the bright side. Now, the dark side: shameful statistics…stuff that we must hear during Black History Month…stuff that we see in the Humanity for Prisoners office on a regular basis. 

The Innocence Project headquarters has compiled 8 outrageous statistics highlighting the ways in which racial inequality persists in the criminal legal system today and contributes to wrongful conviction. 

1.       More than half of death row exonerees are Black

Today, the states that sentence the most people to death are those that once carried out the most lynchings.

2.       Nearly half the people currently on death row are Black

Nearly 300 Black people accused of murdering white people have been executed, compared to 21 white people accused of murdering Black people.

3.       Half of the 2,947 people exonerated since 1989 are Black

While these people have since regained their freedom, collectively, more than 15,000 years of freedom were stolen from them.

4.       Innocent Black people are seven times more likely to be wrongfully convicted of murder than innocent white people

In particular, Black people are more likely to be wrongly convicted when the victim is white.

5.       It takes longer to exonerate an innocent Black person.

Innocent Black people on death row spend an average of 13.8 years wrongly imprisoned before being exonerated — about 45% longer than innocent white people.

6.       Police misconduct occurred in more than half of all wrongful murder conviction cases involving innocent Black people.

Cases of Black people exonerated from wrongful murder convictions were 22% more likely to involve police misconduct than similar cases involving white defendants.

7.       About one-third of unarmed people killed by police are Black.

Of the more than 149 unarmed people killed by the police in 2017, 49 were Black, according to Mapping Police Violence. And yet, despite thousands of police shootings since 2005, only 110 officers who shot a person while on duty have been charged with murder or manslaughter. Less than half of them were convicted.

8. Black people are more likely to be stopped and searched.

But, contraband is less likely to be found! 

“While Black History Month is a time to celebrate the progress that has been made and to honor those who fought for equal rights for Black people in the United States, it’s also an occasion to reflect on how far we have to go.” ---Innocence Project 

“We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.”

Martin Luther King, Jr.