Case Explained: Shareef Cousins • Quattrone Center • Penn Carey Law – Legal Perspective

The 2024 Exoneree Fellow was Shareef Cousin.

In 1996, at the age of 17, Shareef Cousin was sentenced to death for murder. He became the youngest person in Louisiana’s history to be placed on death row. Cousin was convicted based on one woman’s eyewitness testimony with no physical evidence tying him to the crime. On appeal, his legal team discovered that the prosecution largely suppressed exculpatory evidence and coerced witnesses to provide false testimony. Cousin’s conviction and death row sentence were overturned in 1998.

Since his exoneration, Cousin has dedicated his life to advocating for exonerees and incarcerated people on death row through speaking engagements, congressional hearings, media opportunities, and more. He has worked with the Resurrection After Exoneration project in New Orleans and served on Witness to Innocence’s Justice After Exoneration Committee, telling his story and providing mentorship to at-risk youth in Louisiana.

We were honored to welcome Shareef as our keynote speaker at the Quattrone Center’s 2024 Spring Symposium, From Anguish to Action: Improving Criminal System Accuracy. In his speech, he talked about his story, his journey to forgiveness, and complications in his case that prevented him from receiving financial compensation from the state of Louisiana. You can watch the full video, including a Q&A, below.