From Exonerated to Attorney and Advocate feat. Jeffrey Deskovic
Jeff Deskovic · September 24, 2026
About Jeff Deskovic
From Wrongful Conviction to Justice Reform: The Attorney and Exoneree Helping Free the Innocent
16 years Wrongfully imprisoned before DNA exoneration15 people Helped free through the Deskovic Foundation9 laws Helped pass to prevent wrongful convictions200+ Articles authored on justice reform
Jeffrey Deskovic is a wrongful conviction expert, attorney, speaker, exoneree, and founder of The Jeffrey Deskovic Foundation for Justice, where he works to free innocent people and change the laws that allow wrongful convictions to happen in the first place.
His mission is rooted in lived experience. Arrested as a teenager and wrongfully convicted at 17, Jeffrey spent 16 years in prison for a murder and rape he did not commit. He was finally exonerated in 2006 through DNA testing, after the actual perpetrator was identified. Rather than allowing that injustice to define the rest of his life, Jeffrey used his compensation, education, and hard-earned insight to build a foundation dedicated to exoneration, policy reform, and public education.
Since his release, Jeffrey has become one of the most credible voices in the wrongful conviction space. He earned a master’s degree in criminal justice, completed law school, was admitted to the New York State Bar in 2020, and now practices criminal defense while continuing to lead his foundation’s casework and reform efforts. His organization has helped free 15 people and supported nine legislative reforms designed to prevent future wrongful convictions.
Jeffrey’s work and story have also been featured on screen.
About this episode
Jeffrey Deskovic was wrongfully convicted as a teenager and spent 16 years in prison before DNA evidence led to his exoneration. Today, he is an attorney, advocate, and founder of the Jeffrey Deskovic Foundation for Justice. In this episode, Jeffrey shares how he maintained hope, why he went to law school, and how he's using his legal career to help free others and fight for criminal justice reform.
Lawyer Side Hustles
Jeffrey's work extends far beyond representing clients in court. He has written more than 200 articles, speaks nationally and internationally, participates in policy advocacy, works with criminal justice organizations, operates a nonprofit foundation, and uses media appearances to educate the public about wrongful convictions. For Jeffrey, public education is directly connected to changing the systems that allow wrongful convictions to happen.
“The public education as the first step towards legislative changes is what the philosophy is, which is the same reason why I speak, the same reason why I do the interviews,” Jeffrey Deskovic expresses in Episode 263 of You Are a Lawyer.Writing has also become a creative outlet for Jeffrey. He describes building an article almost like creating a piece of art, deciding what arguments to make, how to transition between them, and how to combine statistics, case examples, and his own experiences. That work allows his advocacy to reach people he may never meet, including incarcerated people who have later told him that simply knowing his story helped them continue fighting.
This episode is produced by Skip the Boring Stuff, a podcast strategy company for business owners and creatives.
Guest: Jeff Deskovic
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