View the Photos: Freedom Fall with our Community

This Freedom Fall, we’re uplifting the people and communities who are actively building a world beyond wrongful convictions—and beyond the systems that make them possible. The photos below capture moments from across New England where members of our community are standing with one another, organizing in the streets, fueling the fight against injustice, educating our communities, and demanding freedom.

These images honor the everyday work of liberation: the courage to imagine something better and the commitment to make it real. We’re grateful to stand alongside every person pictured—and every one of you—as we build a more just future together.

Pictured: International Community Justice Association's annual conference; Running for Innocence and Jammin’ for Justice event photos; Wrongful Conviction Day press conference, march and rally; court support and celebrating freedom, and more.

Edward Wright Exonerated!

Edward Wright Exonerated After 41 Years In Prison for a
1984 Springfield Murder He Did Not Commit 

Hampden County District Attorney’s Office Ends the Prosecution of Mr. Wright

Edward Wright (right) and Stephanie Hartung, Senior Staff Attorney for the New England Innocence Project, at the Courthouse after Mr. Wright had his ankle monitor removed on August 22, 2025.

The New England Innocence Project announces today that its client, Edward Wright, has been exonerated after being wrongfully convicted and incarcerated for more than 41 years for a Springfield murder he did not commit. Mr. Wright’s conviction was vacated in April based on findings of police and prosecutorial misconduct, including withholding evidence and presenting false testimony. Last month, Hampden County Superior Court Judge Sarah Hamilton released Mr. Wright on his own recognizance with conditions of release. At the time, the Commonwealth asked for additional time to decide whether it would retry the case. Today, the Commonwealth filed a Nolle Prosequi, ending the prosecution of Mr. Wright for the murder of Penny Anderson.

Over the last 41 years, Mr. Wright always maintained his innocence and never stopped fighting to overturn his wrongful conviction. He has spent decades presenting new evidence in support of his innocence and the Commonwealth’s misconduct, including powerful evidence pointing to a third-party culprit, along with DNA and forensic evidence – all information that was not presented to the jurors in the original 1985 trial. 

Although Mr. Wright was released last month, his freedom was not absolute. He was released from prison subject to conditions that included significant restrictions on his freedom, such as an ankle monitor and a strict curfew. He’s been unable to travel out of state to visit his family or to celebrate with his friends and legal team beyond 8:00 p.m. Now, with the Commonwealth’s decision to end the case, all restrictions have been lifted, and Mr. Wright is finally, truly free.

In its decision to end the case against Mr. Wright, the Commonwealth did not acknowledge that its own agents hid and lied about evidence for decades. Despite Judge Bucci’s explicit findings of misconduct by the Commonwealth, the Hampden County District Attorney’s Office has refused to recognize or take responsibility for their actions that led to Mr. Wright’s wrongful conviction and prolonged incarceration for over 40 years.

“It is unfortunately part of a familiar old playbook that when faced with uncontrovertible evidence of its own misconduct, the Commonwealth buries its head in the sand,” said Stephanie Roberts Hartung, Mr. Wright’s attorney from the New England Innocence Project. “Rather than acknowledging that false testimony and hidden evidence led to the wrongful conviction of an innocent man, the prosecution instead clings to a blind insistence on his guilt. We are thrilled that Eddie is finally free, but we cannot call it justice when it took him 41 years to get here.” 

“The Hampden District Attorney’s Office falsely equates justice for Penny Anderson, the murder victim, with a conviction–any conviction. Edward Wright was Penny Anderson’s friend, and his conviction has never meant justice. Instead, this wrongful conviction has led only to prolonged devastation for two families, two communities, and our entire legal system. This exoneration should be a wake-up call to examine the criminal legal system in Massachusetts,” said Radha Natarajan, one of Mr. Wright’s attorneys with the New England Innocence Project.

“I am overjoyed that Eddie, my friend, can begin to move past this horrific ordeal.  I hope the Commonwealth does not move past it so quickly and instead takes a hard look at the failure of its justice system that caused an innocent man to be wrongfully imprisoned for more than 41 years,” said Nigel Tamton, a member of Mr. Wright’s legal team.

Additional Case Background
Mr. Wright was wrongfully convicted of the 1984 murder of his friend, Penny Anderson, in her Springfield, Massachusetts, apartment. In overturning Mr. Wright’s wrongful conviction in April, Hampden County Superior Court Judge Jeremy Bucci found that the prosecution knowingly and intentionally withheld “significant” exculpatory evidence of a break-in to the crime scene and that a detective gave “blatantly false testimony” at trial concerning “evidence central to the prosecution’s case”. He went on to note that the withheld information affected the “only forensic evidence tying [Mr. Wright] to the blood in the apartment.” The Commonwealth’s appeal of this decision was summarily denied earlier this month by Supreme Judicial Court  Justice Serge Georges.

Next Steps
The New England Innocence Project has represented Mr. Wright for 10 years in the pursuit of his exoneration. Since his release on July 31, Mr. Wright has been reunited with his wife and has begun to heal and rebuild after 41 years in prison. He and his family have also begun receiving support services through the Exoneree Network, a program of the New England Innocence Project, and were met with a warm welcome from this incredible community. His ankle monitor will be removed tomorrow, August 22, at 9 a.m. at the Hampden County Superior Court in Springfield.

About Mr. Wright
Since his release last month, Mr. Wright has savored every moment of his freedom. He has reunited with friends, families, and supporters who stood by him for decades. He has a new fishing rod and caught his first fish in the Mystic River in Medford. It was too small to keep, but that didn’t diminish the thrill. He is slowly getting used to a world that looks entirely different from the one he left in 1984 when he was arrested at age 22. 

Isaac Saidel-Goley, a pro bono attorney from  Mr. Wright’s legal team adds, “For half a lifetime, the Commonwealth tried to write Eddie’s story for him — inked with poison, each page blotted in deceit.  Today, Eddie pens his own ending — vindicated, injustice burned clean by truth.” 

ADDITIONAL BLOG POSTS ABOUT EDWARD WRIGHT:
Edward Wright is Free After 41 Years!
Court Overturns 1985 Springfield Murder Conviction
New DNA Testing Demonstrates Man Was Wrongfully Convicted of 1984 Murder
On Wrongful Conviction Day 2023, Lawyers File Motion for New Trial for Edward Wright, Who Has Served 39 Years in Prison for a Murder He Did Not Commit
An Extraordinary Friend: What Edward Wright has taught me