"This week, during Sunshine Week, people across the country are holding public conversations about the need for open government and the harms of government secrecy.

"I am a living example of how high the stakes can be when it comes to transparency.

"This issue is personal because the sorts of reforms proposed by New Jersey's S2656 could have prevented my own wrongful conviction. In my case, after prolonged police interrogation, I was one of five teenagers who confessed to being involved in a brutal assault and rape of a jogger in Central Park in 1989, despite being innocent. I would later learn that the detectives who worked on the case had extensive disciplinary histories, which, if uncovered then, could have very well prevented my wrongful conviction by disclosing their abusive patterns. And it certainly could have prevented police abuse against other New Yorkers."