We, the undersigned, call on Congress and the President to repeal the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (AEDPA)—or, at minimum, eliminate the barriers that prevent people from proving innocence, constitutional violations, or lesser culpability in federal court.

Why This Matters
In America, justice is supposed to be based on truth—not technicalities.

Yet under AEDPA, people can lose their chance at freedom or fair sentencing not because the evidence is weak, but because they missed a deadline or cannot overcome extreme procedural barriers.

Signed into law by Bill Clinton, AEDPA severely restricted habeas corpus—the constitutional safeguard that allows individuals to challenge unlawful imprisonment.

This issue is not only about wrongful convictions.

It is also about excessive punishment, suppressed evidence, and cases where the sentence does not match the actual level of culpability.

What AEDPA Does
Imposes a strict one-year deadline to file federal habeas petitions—even if new evidence of innocence, mitigation, or misconduct emerges later

Forces federal courts to defer to state court decisions, even when those decisions are clearly flawed

Limits access to new evidence hearings

Restricts successive petitions, even when strong new claims arise

These rules don’t just prevent abuse—they prevent justice.

The Reality
Evidence does not operate on a deadline.

DNA testing, witness recantations, withheld evidence, and prosecutorial misconduct often come to light years or decades later. In many cases, defendants never had access to critical evidence at trial.

At the same time, prosecutors may pursue harsher charges or sentences than the evidence truly supports, leaving individuals with punishments that exceed their actual role or culpability.

But under AEDPA, courts are often blocked from fully reviewing these claims.

Organizations like the Innocence Project have helped exonerate hundreds of people—many after decades behind bars. Many more never get that chance because procedural barriers stop their cases before they can be heard.

This is not justice.

This is procedure over truth.

Our Demands

We call for:
Full repeal of AEDPA’s habeas corpus restrictions, restoring meaningful federal review

OR, at minimum:

Eliminate the one-year deadline for claims involving innocence, newly discovered evidence, lesser culpabiity or sentencing mitigation

Allow federal courts to correct clear constitutional errors, not just those deemed “unreasonable”

Expand access to evidentiary hearings when credible new evidence exists

Remove unnecessary barriers to successive petitions, especially in cases involving innocence or disproportionate sentencing

A Simple Principle
There should never be a deadline on justice.

No one should remain in prison—or serve an excessive sentence—because of a missed filing date, withheld evidence, or an overly rigid legal standard.

Justice must allow the truth to be heard—fully and fairly.

Take Action

Sign this petition. Share it. Demand change.

Tell our leaders:

If there is credible evidence of innocence, misconduct, or lesser culpability, the courts must be allowed to hear it—no matter how much time has passed.