“I’m the luckiest man alive,” said Jon-Adrian “J.J.” Velazquez, a man who was wrongfully convicted in 1998 for the murder of a former police officer, to an audience of high schoolers on Monday November 18th.
J.J. Velazquez served almost twenty-four years in prison and faced a life sentence before he was exonerated.
In 1998 there was a robbery in Harlem; a man named Albert Ward was shot in the head and killed. At the time of the crime, Velazquez was on the phone with his mother in the Bronx for seventy-four minutes. Nowhere near the location. The suspect was described by witnesses as a “light-skinned Black man with braids”; Velazquez is Latino and never styled his hair in braids. Yet, out of a mugshot of eighteen hundred people Velazquez’s picture was selected and he would be convicted. His mugshot wasn’t even meant to be in the system. A year prior to the crime Velazquez was illegally searched by the police where they found drugs in his possession, and they took a mugshot of him. Since the search was illegal, the charges were dropped, and his mugshot was meant to be disposed of.
At the time J.J. was sentenced, he had two young children ages three years old and five weeks old at the time. He would miss his sons growing up, their birthdays, communion, teaching them sports and taking them to the beach. His sons used to visit him every week. But eventually, he told them they didn’t have to come see him out of fear of depriving them of a social life. He’d live his life through pictures spending his days in Sing Sing Correctional Facility.
His story is shared as part of the docuseries “The Sing Sing Chronicles”, which follows a journalist, Dan Slepian, a WPHS graduate, documenting and advocating for wrongly incarcerated individuals over the course of twenty years, starting with shaky unfocused footage then progressing to be steadier. The series is four parts, and it was released on November 23rd, 2024, but WPHS Criminal Law classes were able to get a sneak peak of the first two episodes at the Jacob Burns center on November 18th.
The docuseries was powerful and brought insight to injustice in the criminal justice system and brought humanity to inmates through telling their stories, as well as through explaining the truth about correctional facilities like how there is still violence such as murder committed in such facilities.
After the two episodes ended the students were able to ask questions to Dan Slepian and J.J. Velazquez who showed up live.
Velazquez explained how he was exonerated and has been back for three years and two months. Velazquez was able to be released through the work of his devoted mother and the support of NBC. He explained how before being incarcerated he took life for granted and encourages youth to appreciate what they have, feeling that he has fulfilled his purpose through the docuseries.
“When you’re incarcerated, they take your identity [and] they give you a number,” he said.
Velazquez stated that at first, he thought he was the only one who was wrongfully convicted, but he quickly learned his situation was not unique. He even found that the only difference between other inmates and wrongfully convicted ones was the choices they made.
Velazquez detailed that in correctional facilities people are dehumanized and he didn’t know hatred till he was incarcerated. However, he was able to regain his humanity by helping others in the prison.
Velazquez gave advice to youth about staying clear of bad influences, being aware of your rights and listening to your attorneys.
Dan Slepian grew up in White Plains thinking that the justice system was fine, but upon his investigation he realized this was not the case. He discovered that in correctional facilities treat people like animals and said that he has never seen more humanity then, he did at Sing Sing Correctional Facility. He spent twenty years documenting everything to use his journalism skills to share the stories of the wrongly convicted to showcase the depravity and passionately help advocate for the victims of injustice.
Hearing him talk was very enlightening as it showed how you can use journalism and storytelling for the greater good and helping with human rights – as it was his coverage of the story that ultimately helped release Velazquez.
Overall, the whole event was impactful as it helped shift the view of criminals as being malicious to being misunderstood.
Velasquez concluded on the powerful words: “I didn’t dream of being incarcerated but I dreamed of being exonerated, and here I am.”
