In 1984, an 18-year-old, African-American man named Thomas Haynesworth was on an errand for his mother. While running this errand, a victim of a recent sexual assault saw him and falsely identified him as her attacker. Thomas Haynesworth was wrongly convicted and spent the next 27 years locked up for a crime he didn’t commit. Then, lawyers at The Innocence Project intervened, using newly discovered DNA testing and got his conviction overturned. On December 6, 2011, he was fully exonerated.
Haynesworth is just one of many wrongly convicted prisoners now freed due to the work of The Innocence Project, started by lawyers Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld in 1992. Their passionate desire to intercede for those who cannot help themselves has grown into an international movement that has freed hundreds of innocent men and women.
But you don’t have to be an attorney to plead someone’s case. Elijah’s intervention on behalf of the widow at Zarephath proves we can change others’ lives simply by praying.
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