Jon-Adrian Velazquez spent close to 27 years caught in the criminal justice system — nearly all of it behind bars in New York's Sing Sing prison, convicted of a murder he insisted he did not commit. Andrew Cuomo granted Velazquez executive clemency, citing his work in Sing Sing on an educational initiative by those incarcerated to combat gun violence, and he was freed after serving almost 24 years of a 25-year-to-life sentence. The results determined Velazquez's DNA was not on the key evidence. Since his release from prison, Velazquez has used his experience to become an advocate for criminal legal reform and even played himself in the 2023 drama "Sing Sing," based on an actual Rehabilitation Through the Arts program at the prison. The podcast "Letters from Sing Sing" was a finalist for a 2024 Pulitzer Prize in audio reporting and Slepian's book about the case, "The Sing Sing Files: One Journalist, Six Innocent Men, and a Twenty-Year Fight for Justice," was released this month.

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Persons: Jon, Adrian Velazquez, Velazquez, —, Mr, Abraham Clott, Dan Slepian, Velazquez's, NBC's, Andrew Cuomo, JJ, Lester Holt, I've, Adrian, Velasquez, Maria Velazquez Velazquez, Albert Ward, Attorney Alvin Bragg, Bragg, ” Velazquez, Holt, Dan, I’d, didn't Organizations: New York, NBC, New York Gov, NBC News, Attorney, Justice Locations: Manhattan, New, New York City, Sing, Harlem, attorney's, reinvestigations