Saying ​“I’m young, I have a lot of ener­gy, and I’m up to the task of fight­ing for the rights of oth­ers,” death-row exoneree Isaiah McCoy (pic­tured, cen­ter) and his attor­neys spoke with DPIC about his wrong­ful con­vic­tion, his exon­er­a­tion, and his future. Just weeks after his January 19, 2017 exon­er­a­tion from Delaware​’s death row, McCoy and lawyers Michael Wiseman and Herbert Mondros (pic­tured with McCoy) spoke with Robin Konrad, DPIC’s Director of Research and Special Projects as part of the Discussions with DPIC pod­cast series. McCoy’s case fea­tured sev­er­al sys­temic prob­lems that plague the death penal­ty sys­tem: a lack of phys­i­cal evi­dence, eye­wit­ness­es who received deals from the pros­e­cu­tor and told mul­ti­ple ver­sions of the sto­ry about the crime, a non-unan­i­mous jury rec­om­men­da­tion for a death sen­tence, and a pros­e­cu­tor whose mis­con­duct in the case was so out­ra­geous that he was sus­pend­ed from prac­tic­ing law. McCoy — the nation’s 157th death row exoneree — and his attor­neys explain how these fac­tors con­tributed to his wrong­ful con­vic­tion, dis­cuss his efforts to be exon­er­at­ed, and describe McCoy’s life since exon­er­a­tion. In January 2015, the Delaware Supreme Court grant­ed McCoy a new tri­al as a result of ​“per­va­sive pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al mis­con­duct that per­me­at­ed” his tri­al. In the pod­cast, McCoy shares his views on reforms that could help pre­vent future wrong­ful con­vic­tions. ​“A lot of these pros­e­cu­tors, they’ve built a cul­ture at their offices where they don’t care whether a per­son is guilty or inno­cent. Their only goal is to win by any means nec­es­sary,” McCoy says. ​“So, I think that’s some­thing we must change, in order for the scales of jus­tice to be even.” He advis­es oth­ers fac­ing wrong­ful con­vic­tions to edu­cate them­selves about the legal sys­tem, reach out to orga­ni­za­tions for help, and ​“be stead­fast.” He said that he plans to use his expe­ri­ences to protest mass incar­cer­a­tion and assist oth­ers who have been wrongfully convicted.

(Discussions With DPIC, ​“Innocence and Prosecutorial Misconduct, With Exoneree Isaiah McCoy and Lawyers Michael Wiseman and Herbert Mondros,” pod­cast post­ed on February 16, 2017.) See Podcasts, Innocence, and Prosecutorial Misconduct.

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