A new year in freedom

Exoneree Robert Foxworth reflects on his first year of freedom
and shares hope for the year ahead

“This past year was my first year in freedom after almost three decades in prison for a crime I did not commit. When the state of Massachusetts finally ordered my release, they merely opened the prison doors and said ‘you’re a free man’. For nearly 30 years, while I was wrongfully in their custody and under their control, they held the obligation of providing for my basic needs. In fact, if I had died in their custody, the state would have buried me. Yet upon my release, they offered no assistance in getting my life back on track. I was released in the middle of a pandemic, so jobs were not available. Income to buy food, clothing, and any necessities just wasn't there. How could the state concede that I’d been wrongfully convicted, wrongfully taken from my family for almost 30 years, yet offer me no help?

Thanks to my attorneys, my community, and to my family, I survived. Not everyone is so lucky. And while this first year was hard and painful at times, it was also quite beautiful. I've met people who mean the world to me. To them, I want to say thank you and I love you.

As I enter a new year in freedom, I hope to see the New England Innocence Project, and all of those who work tirelessly to help people like me, keep up their diligence and determination to get those who are wrongfully convicted released from prison. I truly celebrate when someone in our community finds freedom, because I know their situation all too well. For years I told anyone that would listen that I was wrongfully convicted. For so long, my words fell on deaf ears.

So while the New England Innocence Project keeps up their fight to right these wrongs, I will fight right beside them. I honor and respect all that they do on behalf of everyone they fight for.

Robert Foxworth,
Exonerated in January 2021

Hear more from Robert: Watch the video

Learn more about the peer-led Exoneree Network, which provides much needed support to exonerees in New England as they work to rebuild their lives in freedom.