Hello Friends and Family!
This year marks the 12th since my mother and her client, friend, and comrade, Victor Rosario first gathered a team to run the Lexington Battlegreen Run, in pursuit of raising awareness and resources to fight wrongful incarceration. It also marks the year I run my first full marathon!
Running for Innocence was first dreamed up as Victor ran marathons over the course of 76 laps around the prison yard, fighting to keep his spirit free, even as his body was imprisoned for a crime which he did not commit. My mother, one of his attorneys, and an avid distance runner herself, sought to build from this act of resistance a much larger network and community of people working to fight against the inhumane and often illegal practices which lead people to spend decades behind bars for crimes they did not commit.
I ran my first RFI race in 2015, as a sixth grader, working with some of my middle school classmates to fundraise and prepare for the 5k. This organization has provided me community, education, love, and so much joy over the last decade+, and I am unbelievably excited to announce that this year, although not in Massachusetts, I will be fundraising alongside the RFI team as I run my first marathon in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
12 years ago, mother ran the New York Marathon, training alongside Victor in his first years of freedom. Today, 60 innocence investigations, 16 motions for new trial, 15 freed people, and 9 exonerations later, I approach my first marathon, and can think of no better way to mark the occasion, then by giving back to the organization which gifted me a love of running, and the community which comes alongside it.
As my late friend and forever guiding light, Ray Champagne would say, "Freedom is Breath". In honor of his spirit, and that of so many humans still fighting for their own freedom, I ask you to consider supporting myself and the Running for Innocence community by making a donation today.
Thank you for your support, and please follow along @exonereenetwork or @newenglandinnocence on instagram or facebook for more updates to my marathon journey, and the amazing work of RFI and the CPCS Innocence and New England Innocence initiatives.
With Love,
Carter
