RESOLUTION NO. ___, SERIES 2026
title
A RESOLUTION COMMEMORATING AND RECOGNIZING OCTOBER 2, 2026 AS WRONGFUL CONVICTION DAY AND URGING STATE SUPPORT FOR COMPENSATION FOR WRONGFULLY CONVICTED KENTUCKIANS.
body
SPONSORED BY: COUNCIL MEMBER PARRISH-WRIGHT
WHEREAS, International Wrongful Conviction Day was established on October 2, 2013 by the Innocence Network to raise awareness of the causes and harms of wrongful conviction; and
WHEREAS, the Louisville/Jefferson County Metro Council recognizes organizations like Kentucky Innocence Project, the Chandler Project, and the Innocence Project, which work to prevent, reveal, and correct wrongful convictions, free innocent people, and support exonerees as they return home; and
WHEREAS, according to the National Registry of Exonerations, since 1989, there have been 3,852 known exonerations in the United States including twenty-three (23) exonerees in Kentucky who lost a combined 220 years of their liberty to wrongful incarceration; and
WHEREAS, in Jefferson County there are seven (7) innocent individuals – Johnetta Carr, Edwin Chandler, William Gregory, Paul Hurt, Kerry Porter, Keith West, and Michael VonAllmen – who were exonerated after being wrongfully convicted of crimes they did not commit; and
WHEREAS, coerced pleas, eyewitness misidentification, false confessions, inadequate legal defense, official misconduct, misapplication of forensic science, systemic inequities, unreliable and unregulated informant testimony are all factors that lead to a wrongful conviction, with perjury or a false confession a contributing factor in 73% of exonerations in Kentucky compared to 64% of exonerations nationally, and false or misleading forensic evidence is a contributing factor in 50% of exonerations in Kentucky compared to 29% of exonerations nationally; and
WHEREAS, wrongful convictions are an injustice that rob an innocent person of their life, liberty, and dignity and often lead to severe physical and mental detriments such ...
Click here for full text