Staff
Jay-Z’s Roc Nation has been very consistent lately when it comes to criminal justice reform in Kansas City.
Other than filing a lawsuit against KCPD, the hip-hop icon and his Team Roc have also raised $1 million in donations to help investigate a handful of wrongful convictions in Wyandotte County.
According to the Kansas City Star, the money will go to the local Innocence Project and “equates to about a year’s worth of the organization’s budget for its work in five states, including Kansas,” according to the executive director of the Midwest Innocence Project Tricia Rojo Bushnell.
The Kansas City Star has more:
The county has produced serious injustices, including the wrongful conviction of Lamonte McIntyre, who spent 23 years in prison for two murders he did not commit in Kansas City, Kansas. More recently, Olin “Pete” Coones Jr., who spent 12 years in prison, was exonerated of a Wyandotte County murder — only to die from cancer that went undiagnosed 108 days after he was freed. About 40 other people who were convicted in Wyandotte County have applied for the innocence project to investigate their cases, Rojo Bushnell said Monday.
