BCLP Partners Jonathan B. Potts and Charlie Weiss Recognized for Exoneration Work and Systemic Reform

BCLP partners Charlie Weiss and Jonathan B. Potts were recently honored with the Midwest Innocence Project’s Freedom Award for more than a decade of work representing wrongfully convicted individuals; empowering and supporting exonerees after their release; and working to reform the system to help prevent future wrongful convictions.

Since 2009, Charlie has represented five clients seeking to overturn wrongful convictions for murder. In each instance, Charlie secured a court ruling that vacated a murder conviction based on findings of actual innocence, resulting in full exonerations. Jonathan has worked alongside Charlie on these cases since his first month at the firm in 2011. Collectively, these exonerees served more than 100 years in prison for crimes they did not commit.

In 2021, Missouri Lawyers Weekly named Charlie and Jonathan “Lawyers of the Year” for their work in the exoneration of client Donald Nash of capital murder.

In 2023, the Circuit Attorney for the City of St. Louis appointed Charlie and Jonathan as special prosecutors to try the first prosecution-led wrongful conviction case in the city’s history. The American Lawyer named them “Litigators of the Week” for that trial, which was livestreamed for the public and resulted in the exoneration of Lamar Johnson after 28 years in prison for first-degree murder.

Last year, Jonathan represented Marcellus Williams, a death row inmate, through trial and multiple emergency appeals in an effort to halt his execution based on contaminated evidence. His work on the case has been covered by national media outlets including The New York Times, ABC News, CNN, NPR, and others.

Charlie and Jonathan currently represent Christopher Dunn on appeal after Dunn spent 34 years in prison for a murder he did not commit.

BCLP has a longstanding partnership with the Midwest Innocence Project, and together they continue to advocate for wrongfully convicted individuals across the nation.

Watch the video interview with Charlie and Jonathan, produced by the Midwest Innocence Project and shared during the Freedom Award Gala here.