Texas high school football star Greg Kelley’s senior year became a nightmare that would follow him for the next decade. At the age of 18, he earned a scholarship to the University of Texas at San Antonio. But instead of preparing to go there, he was wrapped in a suicide-prevention smock inside Williamson County Jail, convicted of s——- assaulting two toddlers. He kept insisting that he was innocent, but the court didn’t care.
Greg Kelley is now 30 years old and finally exonerated. He’s raising a daughter with the high-school sweetheart who never stopped fighting for him. Kelley is opening a new chapter in justice with his newly launched nonprofit, The Vindication Foundation, which is designed to do for others what very few systems did for him: fight to bring home the innocent.
Greg Kelley has had every possible phase a young adult could experience. He’s been a star athlete, inmate, exonerated man, husband, and father. But the one title that fuels him most now is that of an advocate.
“[It felt like] the biggest fight of my life,” he said.
Teen Football Star Was Wrongly Convicted as a Pedophile. His High School Sweetheart Didn’t Give Up on Him (Exclusive) https://t.co/t9JY5DE3s1
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Greg Kelley used to be packed into a 6-by-8 concrete cell, 23 hours a day. But federal studies he cites say 4–6% of U.S. prisoners are innocent, meaning around 70,000 people are in prison for crimes they didn’t commit. He calls it a “pandemic of injustice.”
The idea behind Greg Kelley’s The Vindication Foundation is to raise funds through marathons and ultramarathons. It serves as a metaphor for the long-distance, stamina-driven fight the wrongfully convicted face when the system is against them. Supporters can donate, run, or simply sponsor miles to help fund legal support and advocacy for the innocent behind bars.
“Endurance is what kept me alive,” Kelley explains in the foundation’s promotional material. Even now, he won’t go into a public bathroom if an unattended child is present. But what survives is his relationship with Gaebri, the high-school dancer who once took his call from a grocery store aisle and fainted in shock. The couple married in 2020 and welcomed their daughter, Summer Rae, in 2024. They’ve built a life in Texas, where Greg Kelley makes axe-throwing equipment after learning woodworking in prison, and Gaebri teaches dance.
So Greg Kelley is using his past to build a better future for someone else!
