IMPACT
“Never, ever be afraid to make some noise and get in good trouble, necessary trouble.” — John Lewis
- 1.
From 2022–2024, JULIAN served as an independent statewide public defender system in Mississippi—the only state without such a system. Mississippi has public defenders in only 32 of 82 counties. JULIAN provides free criminal defense for under-resourced individuals, impacting more than a thousand people through over 50 cases, with a potential reach of more than a million individuals. JULIAN has a 99% win rate in these cases.
- 2.
Five organizations in the nation have lynching-related components. Only one investigates, solves, and litigates modern-day lynchings: JULIAN. In four years, JULIAN has solved several suspected MDL cases.
- 3.
As a result of JULIAN’s organizing and policy work, 2,000 prisoners were released from prison in Virginia in 2024, and another 6,000 people will have their sentences shortened due to the new Earned Sentencing Credit bill, which passed in 2024. JULIAN drafted that bill.
- 4.
In rare cases, the U.S. government intervenes against law enforcement’s patterns of cruelty. Over the last 20 years, the Department of Justice has investigated only 80 of America’s 18,000 law enforcement agencies. JULIAN’s work led the DOJ to open an investigation into the City of Lexington, Mississippi, and its police department. It is the first time in history that the DOJ has investigated a police department of Lexington’s size. Yet more than 50% of police forces in America resemble Lexington’s, with 10 officers or fewer. By scaling the successful reforms achieved in Lexington, we can impact more than half of the police departments in the country.
- 5.
In September 2024, the Department of Justice published its findings against the City of Lexington, corroborating all of JULIAN's evidence. The DOJ found that Lexington and its police used excessive force, made false arrests, and discriminated against Black people in violation of the First, Fourth, and Fourteenth Amendments.
See our “How to Be A Superhero” page to claim your cape and put that “S” on your chest. Yet, true impact is not just the past, it’s the future. It’s you.
However, most of JULIAN’s impact is not tangible and cannot be summarized in brief lines. We believe that impact is measured in lives across the world, and those stories, which don’t belong to anyone but the impacted person, are theirs to tell.