Innocent

The reason I decided to go into the field of law was simple: To fight for justice. That is why, when I was asked to join a team of attorneys to reinvestigate the wrongful murder conviction of a man named Keith Bush, I rose to the occasion.

Keith Bush was an innocent teenager in 1975, wrongfully accused and convicted for a murder and rape he did not commit. Despite years of fighting for his innocence, including 33 years in prison, his voice was not heard.

My team and I examined exculpatory evidence identifying another suspect, forensic evidence that was misapplied and wrongly interpreted, as well as other factors that led to a false confession being extracted from Mr. Bush when he was just seventeen years old.

Our resulting investigation, which was done collaboratively with the Post-Conviction Innocence Clinic at New York Law School, determined that Mr. Bush was not only deprived of his Constitutional rights, but was innocent of the offenses. In fact, the investigation further identified an alternative suspect and career criminal who was the likely perpetrator of these terrible crimes.

When Keith Bush’s conviction was thrown out – 44 years after he was first charged – it was one of the longest-running “innocent man” homicide cases in New York State and nationally according to experts and records.

Keith Bush is an example of why we must never stop fighting for justice, and advocating for those who have been stripped of their voice. After more than four decades, Mr. Bush was able to have his name cleared and his freedom restored. However, he should have never been stripped of his rights as an innocent man in the first place. We must do more to prevent wrongful convictions and continuously improve our justice system.

At RGLZ Personal Injury Law, I will continue to fight for justice for victims, of the negligence or criminal conduct of another, and the voiceless every day.