Jeff is Wrongfully Convicted

Jeff sits in silent prayer having just been informed that the jury had reached a verdict. His mother, left, confident that the justice system would not allow her actually innocent 17-year-old son to be found guilty of a crime he hadn't committed, attempts to reassure him, while his aunt attempts to shield him from the cameras. Read "Doing Hard Time" here.

Doing Hard Time

To illustrate the impact of wrongful convictions on an individuals life and the lives of their families, particularly in cases involving teenagers, Jeff has sacrificed personal privacy in an effort to help bring about greater public awareness, legislative reform. Read “A Glimpse Into The Suffering Of Families Of The Wrongfully Convicted” here and “The Multi-Faceted Human Costs OF Wrongful Conviction” here.

In this photo, taken in 1991, Jeff had recently arrived at Elmira Correctional Facility, an adult maximum security prison; convicted despite the fact that his DNA did not match that of the perpetrator. 

Read “Doing Hard Time Part 2” here and “Mental Games I Played To Survive In Prison” here.

Finally Released

At press conference following release, with Innocence Project Co-Founder Barry Scheck and attorney Nina Morrisson. After serving 16 years wrongfully, Jeff'’s conviction is overturned, and the indictment would later go on to be dismissed. Even in those first few moments of freedom, Jeff spoke of the urgent need for reforms to prevent wrongful convictions. Sept. 20, 2006.

Read Doing Hard Time Part 3 here.
Read news coverage of Jeff's release here.

Battling Wrongful Convictions

Jeff has made the battle against wrongful convictions his life's mission. For the past four years, since emerging from prison, he has lectured at schools and universities, and community organizations throughout the country, testified before state legislatures, lobbied, given many print, radio, and television interviews and founded The Jeffrey Deskovic Foundation For Justice, all while turning out a weekly column in The Westchester Guardian newspaper.  Read Jeff's article here about why he battles wrongful convictions.

Sharing with the Puerto Rican and Black Legislative Caucus

On Feb. 13, 2010, Jeff gave a lecture at The Puerto Rican and Black Legislative Caucus. Raising public awareness about wrongful convictions is an important first step in seeking legislation aimed at preventing wrongful convictions. (From left to right: Marie Verzulli [NYDP Victim Advocate], Nathan Hare, Jeff Deskovic, and non-DNA Exoneree Fernando Bermudez).Read Jeff's article about the caucus here.

Lobbying for Prison Reform

Though Jeff’s primary focus is wrongful convictions and related issues, he also has interest in related criminal justice issues, such as prison reform and prisoner re-entry. In May of 2008, in collaboration with the Community Service Society (CSS), which engages in advocacy, research and direct service to champion better job opportunities to break the cycle of intergenerational poverty among low-income New Yorkers, Jeff traveled to New York’s capital, Albany, to lobby with them for legislative changes. Read Jeff's article about this event here. The Foundation would love to work collaboratively in the future with additional organizations on these and other criminal justice issues where they take the lead with The Foundation providing a supporting role.

Protesting "Judge" Jeanine Pirro TV Show

Despite the fact former Westchester County District Attorney Jeanine Pirro has repeatedly tried to distance herself from Jeff’'s wrongful incarceration by stating that she wasn'’t the DA when he was convicted, she fought all 7 of Jeff’'s appeals though he was arguing his innocence as demonstrated by a negative DNA test; even blocking several attempts to get more sophisticated testing. Pirro'’s prosecutorial misconduct have resulted in five other wrongful conviction cases that were reversed: Kian Khatibi, Anthony DiSimone, Richard DiGuglielmo, Marcia Stein, and Selwyn Days. Seeking to prevent Pirro from remaking her image to falsely depict herself as a noble crime fighter, Jeff led a protest designed to draw attention to her misdeeds. Her show was pulled after one season, caused in part by the protest and follow up actions which resulted in bad ratings, before it was picked up by Fox.

Testifying Before the Connecticut State Legislature

On March10, 2010, Jeff testified before Connecticut State Legislature against provisions that would have sped up executions and limited appeals, while also speaking in favor of recording interrogations and improving identification procedures. The measures to speed up executions and limit appeals were not passed; unfortunately neither was the measure to record interrogations. The measure to improve the accuracy of identifications was passed out of committee. Read Jeff’s Testimony here. Read the article Jeff wrote about the hearing here and news coverage from

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