Free James Ward from Prison

Hi friends and comrades,

My name is Madeleine Davison, and I am fundraising on behalf of my good friend, James "Jay" Ward. Jay has been incarcerated in Ohio since 2006, when he was just 15 years old, after receiving insufficient counsel from his public defender. If his current sentence stands, he will be incarcerated until 2049, at which point he will be 59 years old. Jay has been working with an organization called the National Legal Professional Associates (NLPA) that helped him research his case and identify a lawyer who can help him achieve post-conviction relief and get out of prison earlier. Jay is hoping to raise money to pay the lawyer that the NLPA identified for him.

The total cost for the lawyer to defend Jay is $12,000. Due to Jay's lack of financial resources, lawyer told Jay that if he could pay $5,000 up front, the rest could be put on a payment plan to be paid back gradually. Jay currently has about $2,200 saved up, and is hoping to raise the other $2,800 of the $5,000 down payment so that the lawyer will begin working on his case.

During his 18 years and counting in prison, Jay has become an activist and abolitionist, and he has participated in actions such as the 2018 national prison strike to uphold prisoners' rights and defend them against abuse. Jay has missed many life milestones while in prison — he never walked a high school graduation stage, never had the chance to go to prom or to college, and was forced to miss his own mother's funeral when she died unexpectedly in 2022. Jay is hoping that by hiring a lawyer to seek post-conviction relief, he will be able to help his siblings and their kids, visit his father (whom he hasn't seen in years), and live as a free man for the first time in his adult life. Please stay tuned for updates as we fundraise. When we are able to pay the lawyer, I will post proof of payment here for transparency.