Love In The First Degree - an Anthology for The Innocence Project

Okay, so I know it's been a while since I posted over here. Actually, longer than a while - it's been forever. BUT I couldn't really think of a better place to go to announce my latest project in a non-boring way! (This is where Facebook posts fail - lots of text and no way to make it look pretty!)

SO... I have a new project lol! 

The Love In The First Degree anthology is (or will be!) a collection of intense romance short stories, some with an element of crime, written by some of my favourite authors! All money from this anthology will go to the Innocence Project, and that's partially why I felt the need to make a proper post - to explain the reasons behind the choice of organisation to raise funds for. 

What’s the cause? The Innocence Project

What’s that? Founded in 1992 by Barry C. Scheck and Peter J. Neufeld at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University, the Innocence Project is a national litigation and public policy organization dedicated to exonerating wrongfully convicted individuals through DNA testing and reforming the criminal justice system to prevent future injustice.

The Innocence Project works with prosecutors or courts to agree on private or public labs to conduct testing on evidence connected to a particular crime. In 82% of cases for which records are available, prosecutors eventually agreed to grant testing. In other cases, access to DNA testing was granted through court orders.

Why is the Innocence Project important?  The few studies that have been done estimate that between 2.3% and 5% of all prisoners in the U.S. are innocent (for context, if just 1% of all prisoners are innocent, that would mean that more than 20,000 innocent people are in prison).

The Innocence Project works to exonerate the innocent, improve the law, reform the law, and support the exonerated. 

Why does this matter to me? I’m expecting to hear that question a lot in the coming weeks and months. I’m British. Why would I care about injustice in the US? Well, in the words of Martin Luther King Jr: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” It really is that simple.

If you've watched Making a Murderer, you'll at least have heard of the Innocence Project. There's almost a little irony in this - I feel like since I watched Making a Murderer, I have actually lost my innocence in the sense that it's opened my eyes to a lot of things. This cause goes WAY beyond the cases shown in MaM. The documentary goes way beyond that if you look at the bigger picture. And I guess when it comes down to it, that's what this anthology is for. I can't do a whole lot to exonerate innocent people without a law degree, so I'm focusing what I CAN do. And what I can do is donate to a cause that helps innocent people. 

Plus, you get an awesome book out of it! ;) 

So... what are the details? 

Our list of author is as follows:
Kyra Lennon
Sarah Elizabeth
Kirsty-Anne Still
Clare Dugmore
Bethan Cooper
JA Heron
Laura Morgan 
Ashlee Bryan

Our release date will be July 8th 2016, and that is just about all the info I have right now! 

You can keep up to date with the latest happenings on our Facebook page and/or Twitter!