News

In January 2025, Gender Justice Fund awarded Philly Justice Project a grant to study prosecutorial discretion and women’s long-term incarceration in Philadelphia. 

Dr. McCorkel and LaTonya Myers (Above All Odds) recently co-authored a scholarly article examining the gender gap in exonerations. The article will be published in the edited volume, DCS Handbook on Corrections & Sentencing Vol. 10. Taylor & Francis.

In late October 2024, Philly Justice Project’s director Dr. McCorkel and intern, Ak Asalu, traveled to SCI Muncy where they sent the day working with Sylvia Boykin on her reapplication for commutation. Ms. Sylvia has served over three decades in prison and has more than earned an opportunity to return home to her loved ones.

Calling all jailhouse lawyers and incarcerated legal eagles! Philly Justice Project wants to hear from you about the law library in your facility. To learn more check out our article in the November 2024 issue of Graterfriends, published by the Pennsylvania Prison Society.

In July 2024, Dr. McCorkel was named to the editorial board of Incarceration: An International Journal of Imprisonment, Detention, and Coercive Confinement. Incarceration is a peer-reviewed, international journal publishing high quality research on prisons and other carceral institutions.

On March 1, 2024 we welcomed our newest board member, Morkea Spellman! We are so thrilled to have Ms. Morkea on our team and to be able to continue the partnership that began with overturning her daughter, India’s, wrongful conviction. 

On March 23, 2024, a team from Philly Justice Project traveled to New Orleans, LA for a panel discussion on gender and wrongful convictions at the Innocence Network Conference. Our team included India Spellman, PJP board member, Morkea Spellman, Dr. McCorkel, LaTonya Myers (Above All Odds), Professor Leigh Goodmark (University of Maryland School of Law),