Networked Knowledge - Media Report

[This edited version of the report has been prepared by Dr Robert N Moles]

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On 27 February 2008 Bob Kasarda of the NWI Times reported “Running for those who cannot”

Valparaiso: After spending 60 days in the Lake County Jail for a crime he did not commit, Valparaiso resident Steven Ivanovich is taking to the streets in hopes of raising money and awareness about wrongful convictions. "If you've ever sat in a cell for crime you didn't commit, there's no more helpless feeling," he said. The Gary native, who is now living in Valparaiso, plans to set out March 1 on a cross country run from the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco to the Statue of Liberty in New York City. He plans to make the 3,000-mile journey in 120 days, which is nearly the equivalent of a marathon a day.

The 46-year-old said he will be urged on each day by the knowledge he is free to take those steps, while innocent people behind bars cannot. "That is my absolute motivation," he said. Ivanovich established a nonprofit organization called Innocent Man Walking and intends to use donated money to help those who have been wrongfully imprisoned to get back on their feet with housing, food, counselling and education. "It's a terrible thing being yanked out of society for something you didn't do," he said.

Indiana is one of 28 states that provides no compensation for those it wrongly convicts and imprisons, he said. He hopes the awareness generated by his cross country run will encourage a change. While unwilling to discuss his own ordeal with the legal system, Ivanovich has described it on his Web site at "innocentmanwalking.org". The site includes options for making donations. Ivanovich's Web site said his problem stemmed from a disagreement with a neighbor in south Lake County and resulted in him pleading guilty to confinement and intimidation charges in order to avoid going to prison for life. The ordeal not only cost him his freedom, but also resulted in health problems.

He said his wife, Roseann Ivanovich, started a second career as an attorney as a result of his legal woes. Ivanovich recognizes the challenge of generating interest in the issue of wrongful convictions when it will not personally affect most people. But he said the threat is real and referred anyone with doubts to watch the videos on the topics of wrongful convictions and imprisonments, and police brutality on the popular online site YouTube.

One local case

The city of Hammond is appealing an order to pay $9 million to Larry Mayes, who was released from prison after more than 20 years when DNA evidence proved he was not guilty of abducting and raping a convenience store clerk.

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