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TAKE ACTION
The Georgia Innocence Project is a small, independent nonprofit that relies on grants and individual
donations to raise its annual budget. The process of researching, investigating, and litigating our
cases is often enormously costly and time-consuming. Exonerations take not weeks or months, but
years, and sometimes even decades. Every contribution we receive, no matter how small, helps us in
our mission to free the innocent imprisoned.
The American legal system functions based on the assumption that juries, judges, and prosecutors
do not make mistakes. An indigent prisoner loses their right to a state-appointed attorney after their
direct appeal. This means that the imprisoned innocent have precious few legal resources. If they
cannot afford an attorney, they can either teach themselves the law and try to handle their own
cases, or rely on small, independent nonprofits like the Georgia Innocence Project. The work that the
Georgia Innocence Project does is essential, and we cannot undertake this work without your
support.
The American legal system, as it currently functions, does not give a voice to the imprisoned
innocent. You can.
GIVE MONEY.Even the smallest donations help: a gift of just $5, for example, buys the postage we
need to mail letters to ten inmates. To make a donation, and to learn more about the work that your
gift to the Georgia Innocence Project will help to fund, go here.
ORGANIZE A BIRTHDAY BEYOND BARS Circle of Giving. If there is someone in your life who cares about the plight ofthe imprisoned innocent, who is passionate about social justice, or who simply wants to
make the world a better place, there is no better way to show them your appreciation for their
integrity and compassion than by organizing a BIRTHDAYS BEYOND BARS Circle of Giving.
Recruit friends and family to give the birthday gift of freedom by donating to GIP in honor of you
loved one's birthday. Dedicate your donation on the Donate page of our website and have one
person send us a flattering picture of the birthday recipient. We'll acknowledge the Birthday Guy or
Gal on our social media, and send them a special note of thanks with a list of the members in their
Circle of Giving whose donations helped us in our quest for justice.
Even the smallest of gifts will mean the world to your loved one--and will mean a world of difference
to us, and to the imprisoned innocent who we are working to set free.
GIVETIME. Go to our volunteer form (http://www.georgiainnocenceproject.org/volunteer/) to learn
about how you can volunteer for the Georgia Innocence Project.
SHARE. Follow us on Twitter (https://twitter.com/) and Facebook
(https://www.facebook.com/gainnocence/) to share our stories, and to raise awareness about our
work.
LEARN.Learn about innocence issues. Learn about criminal justice reform organizations and prisoner
advocacy groups (https://www.aclu.org/files/images/asset_upload_file44_33694.pdf) that you can
aid, both within your community and nationwide. If you want to help an innocence project but are
unable to volunteer with GIP,see if there is one in your region
TALK. Discuss innocence issues with your friends and family, and to turn disagreements into
meaningful conversations. Loved Undisclosed and not sure where to turn next? Unite members of
your community with a book club or movie night.
VOTE. Every state allows voters to elect legal professionals and law enforcement officials, and
learning about about these candidates' policies can help you to advance the cause of criminal justice
reform at a local level.
WRITE. Contact your elected officials. Tell them you care about innocence issues, and ask them what
they're doing to help exonerate the imprisoned innocent, and reform the criminal justice system. Go
out how to contact your elected officials and make your voice heard.
GIVE THOUGHT. You don't have to be a lawyer or a politician to help reform the criminal justice
system. The first change you make can be to the way you see the world.
When you read a headline or watch a news story about a criminal case, ask yourself whether you are
maintaining the presumption of innocence when you think about the defendant. Ask yourself
whether you have all the facts you need to understand the case.Ask yourself whether the story is
being reported in a way that encourages you to assume the defendant is guilty, and ask yourself
whether the real story might be more complicated than the one you see on the news.
If a story moves you, think about what larger issues it makes visible. If someone is found guilty of a
crime they did not commit, then their conviction was made possible by problems that afflict the
criminal justice system as a whole, and not just a single case.
Finishing a story is only the beginning. Every story you encounter gives you a chance to understand
not just the society in which it took place, but that society's problems. Nowhere is this more true than
when it comes to the imprisoned innocent, whose stories can help us to understand not just one
person's experiences, but the most pressing problems in our criminal justice system.
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Applause of an Undiscriminating General Public
Is it not true that we are too much in the habit of doing our asylum practice in routine manner? Large institutions with their numerous colonies of patients are apt to make us treat those under our care as a whole, rather than as individuals, and we are likely to regard many cases as chronic, when there should be much hope of benefit — if not cure. Of course there is likely to be a good deal of difference of opinion as to what constitutes a recovery from mental disease, and those who pose for the applause of an undiscriminating general public, can produce general averages of recoveries that are not to be understood by the uninitiated; but can we all examine ourselves and truthfully say we have done our very best for those committed to our care? In the course of a long asylum experience, I have frequently been struck by the fact that some unexpected occurrence has resulted in the cure of patients who had been relegated to the list of chronics, and for whom we had absolutely no hope. While our mental pathology is still a comparatively uncertain quantity, and our knowledge of insanity incomplete, we are bound to make mistakes and must grope our way carefully, until many poorly understood conditions are made plain.
~(The North American Practitioner - Google Books)~
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