Help Arvel Marshall Rebuild His Life

Arvel Marshall spent 16 years in prison for a crime he didn't commit due to surveillance footage. 52-year-old Arvel Marshall was convicted of the 2008 murder of Moustapha Oumaria. In 2009, Marshall was sentenced to 25 years to life in connection to the killing.

Marshall maintained his innocence for years. Amid his trial, Marshall repeatedly requested surveillance video footage of the incident be shown.

The footage showed two young men in the area at the time of the killing. One of the men, who removed an "object" from his waistband, was wearing clothes that matched a description of the shooter given by an eyewitness. A tipster also told investigators that the shooter was a teenager when Marshall was 36 at the time of the crime. But still, Marshall stayed in jail for 16 years, proclaiming his innocence and asking for the surveillance to be shown, only to be denied by the justice system.

On Friday (August 9), Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez vacated Marshall's conviction after the DA’s Conviction Review Unit found he was unjustly found guilty. Marshall's conviction was also tossed by a judge and he was released from prison after 16 years.

After suffering from the injustice of the criminal system for so many years, Arvel has no resources, experience or community, only a strong sense of determination to succeed in his new journey and years ahead of him after losing so much of it. We are raising this money to help Arvel to get the basic necessities: Food, Clothes, A safe place to call home. Anything is helpful. Thank you.