Lessons Not Learned - The Innocence Project

tunity to obtain a college education. Before his conviction, he was
studying at St. John’s University but dropped out after his arrest.
Roy Brown, exonerated in 2007
Fifteen years to the day after he was convicted of a brutal murder
he did not commit, Roy Brown was released from prison. “The
wheels of justice are flat,” Brown told reporters. There to greet
him was a sister who had fought for years to win his release, and
a daughter who was raised in foster care while he was in prison.
Brown suffered from advanced liver disease and was desperate to
get out of prison before his health worsened. By the time he was
released in 2007, the disease had progressed and was in the end
stages. He received a new liver and has made a miraculous recovery,
but he would not have qualified for the liver transplant had he
remained in prison. He is currently living on public assistance and
the support of his friends and family.
Jeffrey Deskovic, exonerated in 2006
Jeffrey Deskovic was a high school sophomore when he was convicted
of murdering a classmate in 1990. While most of his peers
were dating, planning for college, and spending time with friends,
Deskovic was studying the law and writing frantic letters from his
prison cell. He was 16 years old when he was convicted, and 32
years old when he was exonerated. Since his release, he has struggled
to make up for lost time. He is working towards a bachelor’s
degree in behavioral sciences at Mercy College and is learning
how to navigate technology in the 21st century. Still, he knows he
can never make up for the lost years in his adolescence and early
adulthood.
14 THe InnoCenCe PRoJeCT