Innocence Project

For the BBC television drama, see The Innocence Project.
The Innocence Project
Founded 1992
Founder Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld
Location
Budget
2.5 million dollars
Website www.innocenceproject.org

The Innocence Project is a non-profit legal organization that is committed to exonerating wrongly convicted people through the use of DNA testing and to reforming the criminal justice system to prevent future injustice.[1] The Innocence Project was founded in 1992 by Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld. To date, the work of the Innocence Project has led to the freeing of 337 wrongfully convicted people, including 20 who spent time on death row.[2]

Founding

The Innocence Project was established in the wake of a landmark study by the United States Department of Justice and the United States Senate, in conjunction with the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, which found that incorrect identification by eyewitnesses was a factor in over 70% of wrongful convictions.[3] The original Innocence Project was founded in 1992 by Scheck and Neufeld as part of the Cardozo School of Law of Yeshiva University in New York City. It became an independent 501(c)(3) non-profit organization in 2003 but maintains strong institutional connections with Cardozo.[4] The current Executive Director of the Innocence Project is Madeline deLone.[5]

Mission

The Innocence Project primarily exonerates people for whom DNA evidence is available to be tested or retested. DNA testing is possible in 5 to 10 percent of criminal cases.[6] Other members of the Innocence Network also help to exonerate those in whose cases DNA testing is not possible.

In addition to working on behalf of those who may have been wrongfully convicted of crimes throughout the United States, those working for the Innocence Project perform research and advocacy related to the causes of wrongful convictions.

Some of the Innocence Project's successes have resulted in rescuing innocent people from death row. The successes of the project have fueled American opposition to the death penalty and have likely been a factor in the decision by some American states to institute moratoria on judicial executions.[7]

In the decision of District Attorney's Office v. Osborne (2009), US Supreme Court Chief Justice Roberts wrote that post-conviction challenge "poses questions to our criminal justice systems and our traditional notions of finality better left to elected officials than federal judges." In a court opinion, another justice wrote that forensic science has "serious deficiencies". Roberts expressed an opinion that post-conviction DNA testing risks "unnecessarily overthrowing the established system of criminal justice." The law professor Kevin Jon Heller wrote: "It might lead to a reasonably accurate one."[8]

Wrongful convictions

As of March 2016, 340 people previously convicted of serious crimes in the United States had been exonerated by DNA testing since 1989, 20 of whom had been sentenced to death.[2] Almost all (99%) of the convictions proven to be false were of males,[9] with minority groups also disproportionately represented (approximately 70%).[2] The National Registry of Exonerations lists 1,579 convicted defendants who were exonerated through DNA and non-DNA evidence from January 1, 1989 through April 12, 2015.[10] According to a study published in 2014, more than 4% of persons sentenced to death from 1973 to 2004 are probably innocent.[11] The following are some examples of notable exonerations:

Work

In the history of the United States (as of June, 2011) there have been 307 post-conviction exonerations due to DNA testing.[2] According to the Innocence Project these statistics were found on those exonerated:

The Innocence project originated in New York City but accepts cases from any part of the United States. The majority of clients helped are of low socio-economic status and have used all possible legal options for justice. Many clients hope that DNA evidence will prove their innocence, as the emergence of DNA testing allows those who have been wrongly convicted of crimes to challenge their cases. The Innocence Project also works with the local, state and federal levels of law enforcement, legislators, and other programs to prevent further wrongful convictions.[1]

About 3,000 prisoners write to the Innocence Project annually, and at any given time the Innocence Project is evaluating 6,000 to 8,000 potential cases.[28]

All potential clients go through an extensive screening process to determine whether or not they are likely to be innocent. If they pass the process, the Innocence Project takes up their case. In roughly half of the cases that the Innocence Project takes on, the clients' guilt is reconfirmed by DNA testing. Of all the cases taken on by the Innocence Project, about 43% of clients were proven innocent, 42% were confirmed guilty, and evidence was inconclusive and not probative in 15% of cases. In about 40% of all DNA exoneration cases, law enforcement officials identified the actual perpetrator based on the same DNA test results that led to an exoneration.[29]

Funding

The Innocence Project receives 45 percent of its funding from individual contributions, 30 percent from foundations, 15 percent from an annual benefit dinner, 7 percent from the Cardozo School of Law, and the rest from corporations.[30]

Innocence Network

The Innocence Project is a founder of the Innocence Network, an organization of law and journalism schools, and public defense offices that collaborate to help convicted felons prove their innocence.[1] 46 American states along with several other countries are a part of the network. In 2010, 29 people were exonerated worldwide from the work of the members of this organization.[31]

The Innocence Network brings together a growing number of innocence organizations from across the United States as well as includes members from other English-speaking common law countries: Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom.[32]

In South Africa, the Wits Justice Project investigates South African incarcerations. In partnership with the Wits Law Clinic, the Julia Mashele Trust, the Legal Resource Centre (LRC), the Open Democracy Advice Centre (ODAC), and the US Innocence Project, the Justice Project investigates individual cases of prisoners wrongly convicted or awaiting trial.[33]

Causes

There are many reasons why wrongful convictions occur. The most common reason is false eyewitness identification, which played a role in more than 75 percent of wrongful convictions overturned by the Innocence Project. Often assumed to be incontrovertible, a growing body of evidence suggests that eyewitness identifications are unreliable.[34]

Unreliable or improper forensic science played a role in some 50 percent of Innocence Project cases. Scientific techniques such as bite-mark comparison, once widely used, are now known to be subjective. Many forensic science techniques also lack uniform scientific standards.[35]

In about 25 percent of DNA exoneration cases, innocent people were coerced or threatened into making incriminating statements or false confessions. Of the 292 people freed by the Innocence Project, 28 actually pled guilty to crimes they did not commit (usually to avoid a harsher sentence, or even the death penalty).[36]

Government misconduct,[37] inadequate legal counsel,[38] and the improper use of informants[39] also contributed to many of the wrongful convictions since overturned by the Innocence Project.

In popular culture

Film

Literature

Stage productions

Television

See also

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 "About Us". Innocence Project. Retrieved 2015-04-12.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 "Know the Cases". Innocence Project. Retrieved 2016-01-15.
  3. "Facts about Wrongful Convictions >>Mistaken Eyewitness Identifications". Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project. Retrieved 2006-12-12.
  4. "Frequently Asked Questions". Innocence Project. Retrieved 2011-12-09.
  5. "Staff Directory". The Innocence Project.
  6. "The Innocence Project". New York, NY: Innocence Project. 2012. Retrieved 2012-06-06.
  7. Rosenthal, Brian (2011). "Death Penalty Moratoria". Evanston, IL: Northwestern University. Retrieved 2012-06-06.
  8. Lundin, Leigh (2009-06-28). "Dark Justice". Capital Punishment. Criminal Brief.
  9. "Female DNA Exonerees Represent Only a Few of the Women Who Have Been Wrongfully Convicted Nationwide". The Innocence Project. Retrieved 2012-01-03.
  10. "The National Registry of Exonerations". Michigan Law.
  11. "More than 4% of death row inmates wrongly convicted, study says". Los Angeles Times.
  12. 1 2 Neil J. Miller; New England School of Law; Law Review Article. "Reflections of the Wrongly Convicted ; Vol. 35:3" (PDF). http://www.nesl.edu/userfiles/file/lawreview/vol35/3/miller.pdf. Retrieved 2015-03-05. External link in |publisher= (help)
  13. Weber, David (3 August 2004). "Suspect arraigned in three 1989 rapes". Boston Herald. Retrieved 18 August 2015.
  14. Steven Avery - The Innocence Project"Steven Avery - The Innocence Project".
  15. Zerwick, Phoebe (Feb 6, 2004). "Hunt exonerated". Winston Salem Journal. Retrieved June 2, 2013.
  16. Zerwick, Phoebe (2003) Murder, Race, Justice: The State vs. Darryl Hunt Journal Now, Retrieved August 19, 2015
  17. James Tillman - 17 Years in Prison: Innocent Innocence Project, Retrieved August 19, 2015
  18. Lou Michel. "DeJac expects worst from state in suit". Web.archive.org. Archived from the original on January 17, 2012. Retrieved 2015-03-05.
  19. 1 2 "Rogue Justice". CNN (Atlanta). January 30, 2011.
  20. "US man freed by DNA evidence after 35 years in prison". BBC News. 2009-12-18. Retrieved 2009-12-19.
  21. "Man exonerated, freed from prison after 35 years". CNN. December 17, 2009. Retrieved December 22, 2009.
  22. Marzulli, John; McShane, Larry (2010-06-03). "Barry Gibbs, man framed by 'mafia cop,' gets $9.9M settlement for 18-year prison sentence". New York Daily News. Retrieved July 6, 2010.
  23. Purnick, oyce (October 3, 2005). "METRO MATTERS: 19 Years Late, Freedom Has A Bitter Taste". New York Times. Retrieved August 14, 2010.
  24. Driehaus, Bob (2010-09-02). "Ohio's Governor Spares Life of a Death Row Inmate". New York Times (New York). p. A13.
  25. Lundin, Leigh (2010-08-29). "Death and Destruction". Capital Punishment. Criminal Brief.
  26. Welsh-Huggins, Andrew (2010-09-03). "Kevin Keith: Clemency overrides unanimous parole board decision". Mansfield News Journal (Mansfield, Ohio).
  27. Harris, Dan; Yu, Katie; Effron, Lauren (18 April 2015). "Exonerated Death Row Inmate Meets the Former Prosecutor Who Put Him There". Nightline. ABC. Retrieved 18 April 2015.
  28. "How many people write to you each year?". The Innocence Project.
  29. "How often do DNA tests prove innocence in your cases? Does testing ever prove guilt? — The Innocence Project". Innocenceproject.org. Retrieved 2015-03-05.
  30. "Funding". The Innocence Project.
  31. "The Innocence Network". The Innocence Network. Retrieved November 28, 2011.
  32. "Mission Statement". Innocence Network. Retrieved 2006-12-12.
  33. Gordin, Jeremy (August 2009). "The Justice Project". Witwatersrand, SA: Wits Journalism Programme. Retrieved 2011-01-04.
  34. "Eyewitness Misidentification". The Innocence Project. Retrieved June 6, 2012.
  35. "Improper Forensics". The Innocence Project. Retrieved June 6, 2012.
  36. "False Confessions". The Innocence Project. Retrieved June 6, 2012.
  37. "Government Misconduct". The Innocence Project. Retrieved August 19, 2015.
  38. "Inadequate Defense". The Innocence Project. Retrieved August 19, 2015.
  39. "Informants". The Innocence Project. Retrieved August 19, 2015.
  40. Smallman, Etan (April 23, 2007). "The Innocence Squad". The Times. Retrieved July 18, 2009.
  41. "Scheck on "The Good Wife"". The Innocence Project Blog. Retrieved June 6, 2012.
  42. "Article on The Innocence Project Web site detailing "The Simpsons" episode and dedication". Innocenceproject.org. 2013-03-15. Retrieved 2015-03-05.

External links

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