Preview to an Interview with Jeffrey Deskovic

Tomorrow I will be posting an interview I did with Jeffrey Deskovic, founder of The Deskovic Foundation and exoneree. Today, I wanted to post a short biography on Deskovic as a preview to the interview.

Jeffrey Deskovic was wrongfully convicted of rape and murder of a classmate in 1990, when he was 17 years old. He was made a suspect in the case because he showed up late to school the morning after the crime and cried during her funeral. Deskovic volunteered with the police investigation, wanting to help them find the man who killed his classmate. After intense questioning, pressure, and being told he failed the polygraph test, Deskovic was coerced into admitting guilt, and confessed to the crime.

Jeffrey Deskovic NY Post 2019

Despite the DNA evidence not matching his own, Deskovic was convicted on 1st degree rape and second degree murder. He spent 16 years in prison for a crime he did not commit.

In 2006, The Innocence Project took on his case. The DNA from the crime scene was retested, and it matched the DNA of a man who was in prison for murder. That man ultimately confessed to the crime, and Deskovic's conviction was overturned and he was free.

Deskovic used a portion of the money he received in a civil lawsuit against the county that convicted him to start The Deskovic Foundation. In 2013 Jeffrey Deskovic graduated John Jay College, and in May 2018 Deskovic obtained a law degree from Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace Univeristy.

I spoke with Jeffrey about his foundation's origins, its success, the role of the media, his goals and much more. That will be posted tomorrow.