On February 27, 2024, Tiffin University’s student chapter of the Ohio Innocence Project (OIP-u: TU) will host guest speaker Charles Jackson on campus at 7 p.m. at the Chisholm Auditorium in Franks Hall. This event is free and open to the public.
Charles Jackson was falsely convicted of murder and attempted murder in 1991. Jackson’s case stemmed a double shooting in which 29-year-old Joe Travis was found dead by police in East Cleveland from a single gunshot wound in the early morning hours of April 7, 1991. Jackson was convicted on December 16 of killing Travis and attempting to murder another man and sentenced to 30 years to life in prison.
The Ohio Innocence Project (OIP) obtained Cleveland Police Department reports containing exculpatory evidence that were never turned over to the defense. On November 27, 2018, the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office agreed that Charles’s convictions should be set aside and Jackson was released. On August 29, 2019, the prosecution dismissed the charges. Soon after the charges against Jackson were dismissed, he traveled to Florida to donate one of his kidneys to a family member who was in renal failure. After his recovery, he served as the primary caretaker to another man freed by OIP, Isaiah Andrews, who had lost 46 years of his life to prison for a wrongful conviction and was suffering from cancer. Charles provided companionship, care and comfort to Isaiah until his death in 2022.
“We are extremely appreciative of the opportunity to host Charles,” said Dr. Steven Hurwitz, Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Criminal Justice at Tiffin University and the faculty advisor for TU’s undergraduate chapter of the Ohio Innocence Project. “Charles’s story is not only an important example of how wrongful convictions happen, but, equally important, it showcases the height of human compassion in a man who endured a lot of adversity after spending 28 years in prison for a crime he did not commit.”
Since its inception in 2003, the Ohio Innocence Project has worked to release 42 wrongfully convicted Ohioans, who as a whole, spent over 800 years in prison for crimes they did not commit. This makes it one of the top performing members among the international Innocence Network. OIP continues to devote itself to freeing people who are imprisoned for crimes they did not commit. A team of six lawyers and 20 law students investigate hundreds of claims each year. It is the only Ohio-based nonprofit organization dedicated to freeing innocent persons, as well as educating the public on the flaws of our legal system and the societal issues that lead to such injustices.
In addition, OIP advocates for legislation that reforms the criminal justice system to prevent wrongful convictions. OIP has been involved in major reform efforts, including SB 77, which in 2010 mandated police departments use “best practices” in witness interrogations, photo arrays, live line ups and in collecting and preserving DNA evidence. More recently, OIP was instrumental in bipartisan efforts to reform the compensation system for people who have been wrongfully convicted and torequire Ohio’s law enforcement agents to record custodial interrogations. OIP is now working on bills that would abolish the death penalty, allow courts to consider more DNA evidence, and helping the original crime victims in wrongful conviction cases obtain restitution from the state.
OIP-u:TU is an undergraduate-run extracurricular group, which belongs and reports to the greater OIP umbrella organization. Their mission is to further the goals of the collective, as well as provide educational and awareness-based programming about wrongful convictions and the legal system both on campus and locally. They are also affiliated with the Tiffin University School of Criminal Justice and Social Sciences. For more information, visit facebook.com/OhioInnocenceProject.
Please contact Dr. Steven Hurwitz, Program Faculty Advisor with any questions at shurwitz@tiffin.edu.