10/13/2025
“Maybe this prison cell isn’t just a cell. Maybe it’s a university.”
Leon Benson described the awakening he had in prison to more than 100 people at the USF Law Barnett Lecture on Sept. 21.
Benson was freed seven months ago after a judge found, in a case brought by USF Law Racial Justice Clinic, that Benson did not commit the murder for which he was convicted.
While in prison, Benson went from feeling angry — “I could have defeated myself because I was enraged” — to being hopeful, he said. “I learned about existentialism. The philosophers I read became my professors in solitary confinement.” He’s now majoring in philosophy at Wayne State University in Detroit.
At the USF event, Benson joined a panel of people who worked for his freedom: USF Law professors Lara Bazelon, director of the Racial Justice Clinic, and Charlie Nelson Keever; Kolleen Bunch, sister of murder victim Kasey Schoen; Kelly Bauder, co-director of the Marion County, Indiana, Prosecutor's Office Conviction Review Unit; and Shannon Coleman, who became a self-described “truth warrior” after a man was wrongfully convicted of her great-aunt’s murder.
After working to show the court that justice had been miscarried — the lead detective almost completely ignored the most likely suspect — the team led by the Racial Justice Clinic celebrated Benson’s release on March 9, 2023.
More at USF News: https://bit.ly/3QcsXJh
