This Mother’s Day is especially meaningful at the Great North Innocence Project. Already in 2023, we freed our first client who is a mother and saw her reunited with her children, and also grieved the loss of a freed client’s mother who never forgot about him.
Cassandra (Cassi) Black Elk was wrongfully convicted of felony child neglect in the death of her own infant daughter. Despite Cassi’s insistence that she did nothing to harm her daughter and that she was innocent, her attorney encouraged her to plead guilty before even having seen the baby’s autopsy report. As a result, Cassi, who had come to North Dakota to seek a degree in social work, was convicted and incarcerated in the Dakota Women’s Correctional and Rehabilitation Facility. Cassi’s other two young daughters were sent to live with foster parents.
Despite her conviction and incarceration, Cassi did not accept her fate or the false accusation that she was responsible for her daughter’s passing. From prison, she continued to seek out her daughter’s autopsy report, and the truth. In July 2022, she finally received what she was waiting for, and what she already knew to be true was confirmed: her daughter’s passing was a tragic, yet unpreventable sudden infant death. The report further confirmed that her daughter was well nourished and taken care of, and that there was no evidence of any abuse or neglect.
Shortly thereafter, the Great North Innocence Project’s managing attorney, Jim Mayer, and director of communications & community outreach, Hayley Drozdowski-Poxleitner, along with Board Member and founder of the F5 Project, Adam Martin, visited Cassi’s correctional facility to present about GNIP’s services. There, her caseworker encouraged Cassi to share her story with the team.
After the visit, Jim investigated Cassi’s case and found compelling evidence that Cassi was innocent. After months of work by GNIP’s legal team, and generous assistance from expert witnesses, Cassi’s conviction was vacated and she was able to return home in January 2023.
Cassi’s reunification with her children was not immediate. This is in part because Cassi recognized that after nearly a year with a loving foster family, yet another abrupt transition might cause her children further trauma. So, Cassi worked cooperatively with the foster family to ensure a gradual transition in which the children’s emotional wellbeing was always the primary consideration.
On May 4, 2023, Cassi’s daughters were finally and permanently returned to their rightful home–with their mother. Cassi was elated, decorating her apartment with signs, photos, balloons, and streamers, to welcome her girls home.
That day she shared with her GNIP attorney Jim Mayer, “Without [GN-IP’s] help, I wouldn’t be here welcoming my babies home.”
This Mother’s Day, we celebrate this beautiful reunification of mother with daughters and honor Cassi’s tenacity and determination to never give up until she could reunite her family. Although Cassi’s journey is not over with the state appealing her vacated conviction, the Great North Innocence Project will not stop advocating on her and her children’s behalf until her freedom, and their family’s preservation, is guaranteed.
To support Cassi and her children as they rebuild life together, donate to Cassi’s GoFundMe. All proceeds go directly to Cassi and her family.
This Mother’s Day also marks the first of the holiday that GNIP’s freed client Terry Olson is spending without his mother. Terry spent 10 years in prison for a crime that he did not commit after being convicted of murder in 2007.
Despite the deep grief Terry feels at the passing of his mother, he remembers her for her incredible love, perseverance, strong will, and dedication to her son, even while he was wrongfully incarcerated and separated from his family.
Gladys Olson, December 12, 1939-February 16, 2023, embodied a mother’s unflagging love and dedication. This is best demonstrated in a particular anecdote that Terry recently shared about his mother’s commitment to him.
While Terry was incarcerated, Gladys suffered from a stroke, leaving her confined to a motorized wheelchair and unable to drive. That didn’t stop her from continuing to find creative ways to be there for her son and ensure he had what he needed, even while incarcerated.
Terry shared that, despite the fact that the closest Walmart was a mile and a half away from Gladys’ home, she made sure to take herself there via her motorized wheelchair every month to send Terry a money order for necessities in prison.
“I got $20 each month religiously. She was a very strong willed woman,” Terry remembers.
Although Gladys is no longer with Terry on Earth, he will never forget her support and love.
Terry shared, “I truly miss her terribly. She is dearly missed each and every day.”
The Great North Innocence Project grieves alongside Terry while also celebrating the depth of love Gladys showed to Terry, even in the darkest of times.