Making an Exoneree stems from the powerful lifelong bond of friendship between Marc Howard and Marty Tankleff. Born just nine days apart, they first became friends at the age of three, while attending the Lovey Dovey House pre-school. On the first day of their senior year of high school, Marty woke up to find his parents brutally murdered in their own house, and he then became the target of police and prosecutors. Although Marc advocated for Marty’s innocence within their high school newspaper, The Purple Parrot, Marty was wrongfully convicted and sentenced to 50-years-to-life in a maximum-security prison. Their life trajectories took them in different directions—as Marty often describes it: “Marc went to Yale and I went to jail.” About a decade later, when Marc was already a professor at Georgetown, they reunited in the prison visiting room, and Marc told Marty that he would dedicate himself to helping secure Marty’s release from prison. This promise completely reshaped Marc’s life.

For the next several years, Marc visited Marty regularly in prison, met with his attorneys, helped him with various research tasks related to his appeals, wrote an amicus brief on behalf of their high school classmates, and published op-eds in The New York Times and Newsday. Marc even decided to pursue a J.D. degree at the Georgetown University Law Center for the purpose of helping to free his friend.

When the New York Appellate Division overturned Marty’s conviction in December 2007 — citing Marc’s amicus brief in its ruling — over 17 years after he had originally been wrongfully convicted, Marc flew back from France to be present for Marty’s release. Even after Marty’s exoneration, Marc continued his law studies, received his J.D. in 2012, and embarked on his “second career.” Ever since, Marc devotes all of his professional energy to reforming the criminal legal system and challenging mass incarceration.

As for Marty, upon his exoneration, he immediately enrolled in college courses and soon completed his B.A. degree at Hofstra University, and then his J.D. at Touro Law Center. Marc and Marty remain extremely close friends and stay in regular contact. They are now both attorneys, members of the New York Bar, and special counsel at the firm Barket Epstein. They also co-founded the “Making an Exoneree” program, where students reinvestigate likely wrongful conviction cases and seek to contribute to exonerations. So far the program has already contributed to the freedom of Valentino Dixon, Eric Riddick, Keith Washington, and Arlando “Tray” Jones III — who had served over 107 in prison for crimes they did not commit — with more to come. Marc and Marty dedicate themselves every day to helping support wrongfully convicted people in prison, and to inspiring students to push for justice.