ChayaVeda™ is founded upon six core values; community, empowerment,
healing, respect, passion, and honesty. Now more than ever, it is important to
honor our values and stand together as one as we fight for the ones whose lives
were lost due to racism and years of injustice in our society.
The other night, I was watching America's Got Talent with my family. A man with the name Archie
Williams performed the song "Don't Let The Sun Go Down on Me" by
Elton John. The lyrics took on a whole new meaning as he told his
heart-wrenching story. Archie spent 37 years of his life in jail due to a false
accusation of rape. Archie was a poor African American kid and did not have the
means to fight for justice. His fingerprints were not found at the crime scene,
and three people testified that he was home, but that was not enough. He spent
37 years of his life in jail. More than half of his life was taken from him.
About ten years into Archie's imprisonment, the Innocence Project took on
Archie's case, and 37 years later, DNA freed him.
This story does not end with Archie. According to the Innocence
Project, it is believed that 20,000 people in our nation are falsely convicted.
That is 20,000 innocent people who are not able to experience the full beauty
of life. To this date, the Innocence Project freed 367 lives. 61% of the
wrongly accused people were African American.*
This is a problem.
We, as a nation, need to do better. We can do better.
How can you take action?
For
more statistics on DNA Exonerations: https://www.innocenceproject.org/dna-exonerations-in-the-united-states/
Donate
to the Innocent Project:
Educate
yourself on Wrongful Conviction (Movies and TV Series):
Donate
to the George Floyd Memorial:
Support
the National Police Accountability Project:
Donate
to the Bail Fund Program:
*The demographics of the 367 people are the following:
225 (61%) African American
110 (30%) Caucasian
28 (8%) Latino
2 (1%) Asian American
1 (<1%) Native American
1 (<1%) Other
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