“Sometimes the innocent victim of crime is the person convicted of one.” In an effort to promote the mission to free the wrongly convicted, the Innocence Project has adopted these words as a chilling reminder of our tragically flawed system of justice. But for Calvin Johnson, Jr., these words cannot be understated.

     On October 27, after serving 16 years of his life in a Georgia State Penitentiary for crimes he did not commit, Johnson spoke to a packed room of GSU law students as a free man. One evening in 1983, upon returning home from work, Johnson was arrested and charged with 2 separate but related acts of rape that occurred in Clayton and Fulton County. As part of the investigation, Johnson was placed in a live line-up that was viewed by the victim. Although the victim identified another man, police relied on her earlier identification of Johnson from a black and white photograph.

     Johnson was then taken to the hospital in handcuffs, where blood and hair samples were taken and tested. At 
trial in Clayton County, the prosecution relied on the test results as evidence of Johnson’s involvement because they 
identified the perpetrator as an African-American male with O-positive blood. An all-white jury then returned a guilty verdict in 45 minutes, and Johnson was sentenced to life in prison. Johnson was branded as a rapist despite the fact that he presented numerous alibi, the crime scene hair sample did not match hair samples from Johnson, and over forty-percent of the population has a blood type of O-positive.

     One year later, in an effort to clear his name, Johnson requested a second trial in Fulton County for the other rape charge. This time, after a day and a half of deliberation, a jury comprised of 7 blacks and 5 whites found Johnson “not guilty.” Yet, this decision had no effect on his life sentence.

      Johnson was offered an opportunity for early parole if he agreed to attend sexual offender classes. However, this opportunity was revoked when Johnson refused to sign through the prison. After reviewing the transcripts from Johnson’s trials, local attorneys filed a motion for a new trial on behalf of Johnson based on newly discovered evidence.

      The Innocence Project of New York agreed to accept Johnson’s case and students from the Cardozo School of Law began doing research to uncover possible DNA evidence. DNA testing revealed it was impossible for Johnson to be guilty of those crimes. In 1999, as a result of the efforts of the Innocence Project, Calvin Johnson Jr. was exonerated and released from prison. 

     Established in 1992 by Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld of the Cardozo School of Law in New York, the Innocence Project was created to free wrongly convicted inmates like Calvin Johnson, Jr. Most Innocence Project cases focus on providing relevant DNA testing that was not available at trial to overturn convictions that result from junk science, mistaken eyewitness identification, false confession, prison informants and police and attorney misconduct.

     Over the past 10 years, Innocence Projects around the country have exonerated over 100 individuals.

     This fall, due to two Georgia State College of Law alumni, Jill Polster and September Guy, a new Innocence Project will begin here in Atlanta. The Georgia Innocence Project is funded almost entirely through donations, so the volunteer effort of Atlanta law students is crucial. Polster, Guy, and Aimee Maxwell, Project Director, have collaborated with Georgia State to provide student externships and volunteer experiences with the Georgia Innocence Project.

For more information on the Georgia Innocence Project or about how you can get involved, visit www.ga-innocenceproject.org.

Pictured Above: Calvin Johnson with GIP Executive Staff