Join the Arizona Justice Project and friends of Larry Hammond to celebrate his life and his impact on wrongful convictions in Arizona.

Thursday, September 24th | 4:30pm - 5:30pm

You are invited to join the Arizona Justice Project and friends of Larry Hammond for this online tribute. You must register to receive the Zoom link, which will be sent out before the event.

Larry's Legacy

In the 1990s, Larry Hammond, a nationally renowned Phoenix criminal defense attorney, believed individuals in prison needed an organization that they could contact as a last resort for proving their innocence or correcting a manifest injustice. This was a pivotal time in the criminal justice system as DNA testing technology and other forensic disciplines advanced. These technological advances provided, perhaps for the first time in the history of the criminal justice system, conclusive evidence that innocent people have been convicted of crimes they did not commit.

Hammond, along with the Arizona Attorneys for Criminal Justice, founded the Arizona Justice Project in 1998, making it the 5th Innocence organization in the United States. Since then, the Project has helped free dozens of individuals in cases of innocence, manifest injustice, and excessive sentencing. Year after year, Hammond’s leadership brought together lawyers, investigators, forensic experts, law students and others to dedicate their time and expertise in working to correct one injustice at a time. Hammond’s family, especially his wife Frances, poured love and support into the Project’s existence.

The Chief, as the Project staff affectionately referred to him, passed away on March 2, 2020. Before Larry's passing, he reflected on the Project's growing community of supporters, writing, "There was a time when this Project in its infancy sometimes seemed like a very lonely endeavor. If it ever was as lonely as we sometimes felt it was, it certainly is no longer."