Innocence Project receives 2021 Debs Award

Oct. 25—The Eugene V. Debs Foundation bestowed its 2021 Eugene V. Debs Award on the Innocence Project, a New York-based organization that battles to get those who have been wrongly convicted of crimes exonerated and freed from prison.

Since 1992, the Innocence Project has freed more than 230 people who had served a combined 3,000 years in prison for crimes they had not committed. Convictions are overturned due to DNA tests and other means that prove the person incarcerated could not have possibly committed the crime they have been accused of.

Foundation President Noel Beasley presided over a virtual ceremony on Saturday afternoon. No award was given last year because of the pandemic.

"The Innocence Project is honored to receive the Eugene V. Debs Award in recognition of our work freeing and exonerating the wrongfully convicted and reforming the systemic flaws and inequities that contribute to wrongful convictions, " Christina Swarns, Executive Director of the Innocence Project, told the Tribune-Star before the ceremony.

"Over the past 30 years, we have paved the way in utilizing the extraordinary power of DNA to prove innocence, advance justice and reform the criminal legal system," she continued. "We are proud to have exonerated more than 230 people and passed critical legal and policy reforms that prevent future wrongful convictions. We are deeply grateful to be recognized for our humanitarian and social justice advocacy — issues to which Eugene Debs so profoundly dedicated his life."

During her acceptance speech, Swarns spoke of the racism inherent in the legal system — 60% of those who have been exonerated by the Innocence Project are black. Debs' own time in prison, she noted, "weakened his health but strengthened his resolve."

Also speaking was Marvin Anderson, a member of the Innocence Project's board who was also a client — sentenced to 210 years in prison as an 18-year-old for a crime he did not commit, he served 15 years before his release.

"Sadly, I've heard versions of my story time and time again," he said. In the 20 years since being freed, he has started a family.

Engraved on the plaque given to the Innocence Project were the words "Defending the innocent to build a fair criminal legal system for all."

Debs' speech denouncing American involvement in World War I in 1918 landed him in prison under the Sedition Act of 1918. While incarcerated, he ran for President of the United States in 1920 and won 1 million votes. His 10-year prison sentence was commuted by President Warren Harding in 1921. Debs died in 1926.

He served as a member of the Indiana House of Representatives from 1885-1887 and as Terre Haute City Clerk from 1879-1883. His home on the Indiana State University campus is now a museum.

Musician Bucky Halker performed "Going Down the Road Feelin' Bad (I Ain't Gonna Be Treated This Way)" before the award was presented. He closed the ceremony with the standard "Solidarity Forever."

Each year since 1965, an awards banquet had been held in Terre Haute honoring a person or organization that has contributed to the advancement of unionism, social justice or world peace.

Previous winners include novelist Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (1981), Coretta Scott King (1982), actor Ed Asner (1987), filmmaker John Sayles (1991), historian and activist Howard Zinn (1998), civil-rights leader Julian Bond (2002), actor Danny Glover (2011) and union-rights organization Jobs with Justice (2018).

More information about the Debs Foundation can be found at debsfoundation.org. Further information about the Innocence Project is available at Innocenceproject.org.

David Kronke can be reached at 812-231-4232 or at david.kronke@tribstar.com.