Falsely Convicted Man Turned Lawyer, Isaac Wright Jr., Running for New York Mayor

Isaac Wright Jr., a man who was falsely convicted of a crime he didn’t commit and later freed, has announced he will run for mayor of New York City.

Wright’s story became famously known through the ABC drama, “For Life.” Wright served seven years in prison after he was accused of leading a drug trafficking network, among many other things, in New Jersey in 1989. 

By 1991, he had been sentenced to life in prison and was ordered to serve at least 30 years before becoming eligible for parole. During his sentence, Wright began studying law and working as a proxy lawyer for inmates. It was that skill that would eventually help him to prove his own innocence in court.

Wright filed a lawsuit against the state and several law enforcement employees, including the prosecutor, Nicholas Bissell, who Wright alleged had engaged in misconduct. That was proven to be true in 1996 when Bissell was convicted on 30 felony counts and later killed himself. That same year, during an evidentiary hearing, Wright cross-examined a police officer involved with the case, ultimately him to confess to misconduct and illegal cover-ups. Wright was released from jail that December.

After his release, Wright went to school and graduated from Miami's St. Thomas University School of Law in 2007. He passed the bar in 2008, and now focuses on wrongful convictions. Wright is running for mayor in hopes of addressing “the racial, economic, environmental, and educational injustices that plague our city’s institutions.”

Running as a Democrat, he told People that he will be focusing on criminal justice reform, housing, infrastructure and the economy.

"My experience is different than any other candidate in the fray," Wright told People.

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