January 21, 2007

Person of the Day: James Waller

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JAMES WALLER, who was in a Texas prison for 11 years, was exonerated Wednesday by DNA testing thanks to the labs of the Innocence Project. Mr. Waller, convicted of sodomy based on the testimony of a 12-year-old, is the latest exoneration of 12 in Dallas County since 2001. “Nowhere else in the nation have so many individual wrongful convictions been proven in one county in so short a span,” said Barry Scheck, cofounder of the Innocence Project. He has vowed to find out why.

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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