Reunion and Reform: Inside the Powerful 2025 Innocence Network Conference

Jia Rizvi
Apr 8
3 min read

Updated: Jul 8

From April 3–5, 2025, over 1,200 people gathered in Seattle for one of the most powerful and deeply human events in the criminal justice reform space: the Innocence Network Annual Conference. This year’s gathering brought together exonerees, their families, legal advocates, and supporters under one roof to celebrate progress, confront injustice, and build community.

The Innocence Network is a coalition of more than 71 independent organizations across the U.S. and beyond, all dedicated to providing pro bono legal and investigative services to individuals seeking to prove their innocence. While their work is rooted in righting past wrongs, the Network also drives forward-looking reforms to prevent wrongful convictions from happening in the first place.

But for all its strategic and legal sophistication, the conference is equally a place of healing and reconnection. “It’s almost like a family reunion — you catch up, ask how the family’s doing. That’s the part I look forward to most,” shared Shoshanah Kennedy, Manager of Events and Engagement. Indeed, this year’s conference felt like exactly that: a homecoming.

Of the 1,200+ attendees, 345 were freed or exonerated individuals, a number that speaks to both the devastating scale of wrongful convictions—and the resilience of the human spirit. These individuals, many of whom spent decades behind bars for crimes they didn’t commit, were joined by their families and the advocates who fought to bring them home.

Honoring Advocacy and Amplifying Voices at the Innocence Network Conference

The conference featured a powerful keynote address by Alondra Nelson, Innocence Project Board Member and social scientist. Nelson spoke candidly about the risks of unregulated artificial intelligence in law enforcement surveillance, warning that these tools—often lauded as impartial—can replicate and even worsen existing systemic biases. Her remarks served as a timely reminder that the fight for justice must also be a fight for ethical innovation and oversight in our legal systems.

This year’s Network Impact Award was presented to Amanda Knox, the Seattle native who spent nearly four years imprisoned in Italy before her wrongful conviction was overturned. Today, Knox is a vocal advocate for the wrongfully convicted, using her platform to spotlight injustices and push for meaningful change. Her acceptance speech was moving, and her performance with the Exoneree Band and Pearl Jam’s Mike McCready made the night unforgettable—especially in the city where Pearl Jam first took root.

The Texas House Committee on Judiciary and Civil Jurisprudence received the Champion of Justice Award for its extraordinary and bipartisan effort to halt the execution of Robert Roberson, a man sentenced to death despite troubling flaws in his case. The committee's intervention underscored how legislative leadership can be a powerful force for justice.

And always the most memorable and moving part of the entire conference is the introduction and recognition of the freed and exonerated community members in attendance. These wrongfully convicted men and women lost a collective of 5505 years while incarcerated.

A Place to Dream, Plan, and Connect

Each day of the conference was packed with sessions, workshops, and mixers, offering both education and inspiration. Topics ranged from trauma-informed reentry practices to litigation strategy, policy change, and media advocacy. But between panels and presentations, what stood out most were the hallway conversations, hugs, laughter, and shared meals—the human moments that turn a conference into a community.

Seattle, with its deep musical roots and progressive spirit, proved a fitting host for this year’s event. And as the echoes of the Exoneree Band's performance with McCready rang out and the final sessions drew to a close, attendees looked ahead to what’s next.

Looking to 2026

The 2026 Innocence Network Conference will take place in Chicago, Illinois on April 10–11—a city with its own complex relationship to justice, but also a strong community of advocates and exonerees ready to lead the way.

Until then, the work continues—but so does the hope.