From Prisoner to Advocate

Exoneree Share’s His Story at Oregon Innocence Project Benefit

Calvin at Law School Graduation. Calvin Duncan spent nearly three decades in prison after a wrongful conviction.

A man with strong Oregon connections who spent nearly three decades in prison after a wrongful conviction is visiting Portland next month to share his story and support Oregon’s only program solely dedicated to helping innocent people clear their names. Falsely accused of murder at the age of nineteen, Calvin Duncan endured a life sentence in Louisiana prisons without the possibility of parole for more than twenty-eight years. He’ll be the special guest speaker on September 11 in Portland at THIS IS INNOCENCE, a benefit for the Oregon Innocence Project. 

While Mr. Duncan was incarcerated, he became an inmate counsel substitute, or jailhouse lawyer, helping hundreds of fellow incarcerated people – including many on death row - to challenge wrongful convictions and unjust sentences.

His efforts have contributed to landmark U.S. Supreme Court decisions, including Smith v. Cain (2012) and Ramos v. Louisiana (2020). The Ramos case vacated hundreds of convictions in Oregon, the only state besides Louisiana that allowed felony convictions based on nonunanimous jury verdicts. Calvin Duncan holds a J.D. from Lewis & Clark Law School in Portland and now resides in New Orleans, where he continues his advocacy on behalf of those still behind bars. 

This summer, along with co-author Sophie Cull, Calvin Duncan published “The Jailhouse Lawyer,” which tells the story of his thirty-year path through Angola prison after a wrongful murder conviction, his coming-of-age as a legal mind while imprisoned, and his continued advocacy for those on the inside. Signed copies of “The Jailhouse Lawyer” will be available for purchase at THIS IS INNOCENCE courtesy of Broadway Books. 

The Oregon Innocence Project (OIP) was founded in 2014, inspired by the model originally developed by the Innocence Project in New York. As well as freeing wrongfully convicted people from prison, OIP works to prevent and address wrongful convictions at a systemic level and provides an outstanding educational experience to law students. The Oregon Innocence Project accepts cases from all around Oregon and provides free legal assistance to its clients. To receive help, an individual must have been convicted of a crime in Oregon and be asserting factual innocence of that crime. There must also be some legal route to proving their innocence. 

The Oregon Innocence Project has so far helped five people clear their names. The exonerees’ crimes of conviction include murder, attempted murder, manslaughter and sexual abuse. These clients between them served more than sixty years in prison and would have served many decades more without the organization’s help. Among them is Jesse Johnson, Oregon’s only death row exoneree, whose wrongful conviction for a 1998 murder in Salem was overturned by the Oregon Court of Appeals in 2021. Mr. Johnson was released in 2023 after two additional years in jail when the Marion County District Attorney opted not to retry him. 

The Oregon Innocence Project’s other exonerees are Josh Horner, freed in 2018 from a 50-year prison sentence for sexual abuse, Nick McGuffin, freed in 2019 after serving almost a decade in prison for manslaughter, Earl Bain, pardoned on the grounds of innocence by Governor Kate Brown in 2020 following a six-year sentence for sexual abuse and Danyale Gill, freed in 2023 from a 44-year sentence that was greatly extended because of an earlier wrongful conviction. 

In addition to assisting individual clients, the Oregon Innocence Project has also worked with legislators, judges, district attorneys, defense attorneys, and others in the legal system over the years to make changes that will help to prevent or address wrongful convictions.  

Supporters and staff of the Oregon Innocence Project will gather at 6pm at the Irving Street Studios (Ecotrust Building) in Portland for an evening celebration on September 11 with hearty appetizers and drinks served. Calvin Duncan will be in conversation with OIP’s Director of Communication Alice Lundell at the event and will take questions from guests. In addition, OIP Co-Directors Kassidy Hetland and Kenneth Kreuscher will share stories of their efforts to help innocent Oregonians clear their names. Some former clients plus other Oregon exonerees will also be present. Tickets are still available for the benefit from OIP’s website: https://www.oregoninnocence.org/this-is-innocence. 

“Calvin Duncan’s story shows the devastating cost of wrongful convictions and the extraordinary power of resilience and advocacy,” said Kenneth Kreuscher, Co-Director of the Oregon Innocence Project. “We are honored to welcome him back to Oregon, where his work has already had a profound impact through the Ramos decision. Calvin’s journey reminds us why the Oregon Innocence Project exists: to free the innocent, to fight for systemic change, and to ensure that no one else has to lose decades of their life to a wrongful conviction.”