Sing Sing actor Jon-Adrian “JJ” Velazquez has officially been cleared of the charges for which he was wrongfully imprisoned. He was exonerated of murder Monday morning, 27 years after he was convicted.
JJ was wrongfully convicted of killing a retired New York police detective in 1998 during the robbery of a gambling parlor in Harlem. Thought to be Tee, one of the robbers who had identified himself at the time, JJ was sentenced to 25 years to life, despite failing to match the description of the suspect and phone records that supported his alibi.
After nearly 24 years behind bars, JJ was granted clemency on Aug. 17, 2021, and released from the Sing Sing prison on Sept. 9, 2021. An investigation later revealed his DNA didn’t match Tee’s DNA.
JJ received an apology from President Joe Biden in 2022 but was unable to visit with him in person because he didn’t have a travel pass.
“It’s a lot deeper than discrimination. It comes down to diminishing a person’s human dignity. I’m getting a part of my dignity back,” Velazquez said, per Variety. “There’s nothing that they can do to give me back the 24 years I lost, and all of the tribulations to incur as a result. There’s a spirit of vindication, but there’s still a lot of trauma that’s unaddressed — that the system refuses to address.”
Now a criminal legal reform activist and founding member of education initiative Voices From Within, JJ stars alongside Clarence Maclin and Colman Domingo in Sing Sing, a movie about a wrongfully convicted man who finds purpose through the prison’s Rehabilitation Through the Arts program.
He says he’d like to act more in the future.
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