The Tiffin University Ohio Innocence Project Chapter (OIP-u: TU) will present a special movie night featuring the award-winning documentary “Lovely Jackson” Thursday, March 26, at 6:30 p.m. in the Chisholm Auditorium in Franks Hall on Tiffin University’s campus. The event is free and open to the public.
“Lovely Jackson” is a documentary about Rickey Jackson who was falsely convicted of murder at age 18 in 1975. An Ohio Innocence Project investigation earned him a new trial in 2014 where the prosecution dropped all charges; Jackson was cleared and released after spending 39 years in prison for a crime he did not commit. At the time of his release, Jackson had the distinction of having spent the longest time in prison of any exoneree in the United States. In the award-winning documentary, Jackson returns to the very prison where he was once held and, alongside professional actors, reenacts moments from his life. The film uses Jackson’s own voice to narrate his story of wrongful conviction and survival.
Since 2003, the Ohio Innocence Project has freed 43 wrongfully convicted Ohioans who served more than 800 years in prison. A team of six lawyers and 20 law students investigate hundreds of claims annually. OIP is Ohio’s only nonprofit dedicated to freeing the innocent and educating the public on flaws in the legal system. OIP also advocates for criminal justice reform, including Senate Bill 77, which established best practices for eyewitness identification and DNA evidence. It has supported efforts to improve compensation for the wrongfully convicted and require recording of custodial interrogations. They are currently working on legislation to expand DNA evidence access, provide restitution to victims and abolish the death penalty.
OIP-u: TU is a student-run chapter of the Ohio Innocence Project that provides educational programming on wrongful convictions and the legal system. The group is affiliated with Tiffin University’s School of Criminal Justice and Social Sciences.
For more information, visit facebook.com/OhioInnocenceProject or email roszmandl@tiffin.edu.