When I sat down with Walter Dunn, I felt the weight of a story that had been hidden behind bars for so long it seemed almost invisible.
Walter spent 13 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit. Most people would have given up, would have let the system break them. But Walter did something different – he started studying law.
“I went to law books and I started understanding the law and I started releasing other people from prison while I was in prison because I really got good at it,” he told me. Think about that for a second. A man locked up for something he didn’t do, spending his time learning how to help others get out.
While the walls were closing in around him, Walter’s mind opened wide. He taught himself legal concepts, studied statutes, and even drafted petitions for people who had no voice. The books became his compass, guiding him toward justice not just for himself, but for everyone around him.
What Walter did next is almost unbelievable. He started helping other people get out of prison while he was still locked up himself. Not for recognition. Not for money. But because he felt the injustice that had trapped him could be stopped for others.
He didn’t do it for applause. He did it because he understood what it felt like to be trapped in a system that had failed you. And he knew that knowledge, once gained, could be shared. So he shared it. Quietly. Consistently. Without fanfare.
I asked him about the people he helped, and his eyes lit up. These weren’t just case numbers to him – they were real people with real families, real hopes, real dreams. And he had given them back their freedom.
When Walter finally got out, he could have walked away from the whole thing. He could have focused on rebuilding his own life, on putting the nightmare behind him. But that’s not what he did.
“I want people to know that a wrongful conviction doesn’t have to be a life sentence,” he said. He turned his own experience into a platform to fight for fair trials, to prevent false guilty pleas, and to highlight the plight of juveniles in the justice system.
His voice became a beacon for those still trapped, a call to action for anyone who believes in equality before the law. But more than that, he became living proof that the system that tried to break him could be changed from within.
Walter’s journey wasn’t just about getting out of prison – it was about making sure others didn’t have to go through what he went through. He’s spent years fighting for criminal justice reform, working to prevent the kind of wrongful conviction that stole 13 years of his life.
But here’s what I find most remarkable about Walter: he doesn’t seem bitter. He doesn’t seem angry. He seems determined. Determined to make sure that what happened to him doesn’t happen to anyone else. Determined to use his story to create change.
When I asked him what kept him going during those 13 years, he talked about the people he was helping. About the families he was reuniting. About the justice he was fighting for, even from behind bars.
Walter’s story is about more than wrongful conviction and eventual freedom. It’s about what happens when you refuse to let your circumstances define you. It’s about finding purpose in the darkest places and using that purpose to light the way for others.
His work continues today, fighting for criminal justice reform and helping others navigate a system that he knows all too well. But more than that, he’s proof that sometimes the people who’ve been through the most are the ones who can change the system the best.