My first interview was conducted with Anna Vasquez, the Director of Outreach and Education at the Innocence Project of Texas.  This was quite possibly the most ideal interview I could have secured to start my primary research process.  Ms. Vasquez was part of the San Antonio 4, a group of women that were accused and convicted of aggravated assault of a child.  Despite the complete innocence of all 4 women, Anna Vasquez would serve 12 years in prison before finally being released on parole where she would fight for the next four years for the release of her three peers and their eventual exoneration which came in 2016.  Following her release, Ms. Vasquez would reconnect with the organization that fought for her freedom and legal recognition of her innocence and would get a job with the Innocence Project of Texas where she continues to tell her story and fight to raise awareness for the issue of wrongful convictions while guiding fellow exonerees after their release.  This interview was an opportunity for me to connect firsthand with someone who had lived through the entire process of a wrongful conviction as well as the sentence that followed.  While she did not have a legal background, I hoped that Ms. Vasquez would be able to teach me about what can be done and what needs to be done in order to address the issue and provide guidance and insight on how the wrongful conviction issue affects people nationwide.  Simply the opportunity to speak to someone that was brave enough to share details of her story, which she admitted was a difficult and enduring thing to relive, is huge to my research and my project as I plan to appeal to the audience of my website by sharing stories of people who have experienced wrongful convictions.  

 

From the interview, Ms. Vasquez emphasized the importance of raising awareness for the issue.  While reform needs to be pushed for and exonerations themselves are absolutely crucial to the lives of many innocent people who find themselves victims of the flaws of the justice system, change can really only be seen if people get behind the issue and address it.  Because of the increasing amount of wrongfully convicted people being exonerated, light is being shown on the issue which can hopefully continue to draw attention to the issue.  In talking to Ms. Vasquez about the clear mishaps of her trial and lack of solid evidence that led to her conviction as well as the obvious prejudice that was seen in her trial which framed her and her friends as “evil lesbians” in front of a largely conservative San Antonio jury, her trial would clearly be alarming and likely frightening to most.  This highlights the importance of awareness in creating change as it is likely that with more knowledge and understanding of the issue amongst the general public, people will begin to acknowledge that the justice system is flawed and needs to be worked on. 

 

I informed Ms. Vasquez that I would be trying to speak to a prosecutor in order to hear their side and perspective of the issue.  She was excited to hear what I found and learned from that conversation and noted that she thought there would be a difference in their reactions to wrongful convictions depending on their age.  She has found that traditionally, older lawyers have been more dismissive of the importance of addressing the issue of wrongful convictions while younger lawyers and students are being taught about the issue more and more.  We agreed that this pattern was somewhat encouraging as it shows that more attention is being given to wrongful convictions.  This can hopefully lead to additional reform in the future.  Ms. Vasquez also encouraged me to use her story as an example of the shortcomings of the system and that this was something that should be shared in order to continue to gain support for change.  Ms. Vasquez also spoke on behalf of two bills in front of the Texas Senate that fought for reform -- one fighting against the use of “jailhouse snitch” testimony in court and another fighting for changes to be made in interrogation of juveniles.  These can both be addressed as reforms to be suggested on my site.  

 

Additionally, we discussed the impact prejudice has in the criminal justice system as well as the major inability of people with lower socioeconomic status to get innocent verdicts.  This clearly comes from the lesser skilled defense public defenders are able to provide because of overwork and more static pay than private defenders.  This highlights the need for improvements to this system in possible special funding for defense of higher crimes, probono cases being required to be taken by criminal firms, and other methods to improve the defense people get at trial.  Organizations like the Innocence Project of Texas work pro bono but still manage to fight hard and passionately to seek justice for victims of the system.  However, this defense often comes years after innocent people have been convicted and incarcerated.  This is why another possible source of change is finding ways to bring the same passion and hard work to criminal cases when they are first brought to trial.  These conversations and the interview with Ms. Vasquez as a whole was a huge way for me to further my research and gain a new, firsthand perspective to the issue.  I thank Ms. Vasquez for her willingness to meet and continue contact in the future and for the insight she was able to provide.