Innocence Project

An Innocence Project is one of a number of non-profit legal organizations in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand dedicated to proving the innocence of wrongly convicted people through the use of DNA testing, and to reforming the criminal justice systems to prevent future injustice.^[1] The clinic’s case work is mainly handled by law students while under the supervision of attorneys and the clinic staff.^[1]

Contents 1 Founding 1.1 United States 1.2 Worldwide 2 Mission 2.1 Wrongful convictions 3 United States Innocence Projects 3.1 New York 3.2 North Carolina 4 Innocence Network 5 Causes 6 In popular culture 7 See also 8 External links 9 Notes

Founding

United States

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.^[2] The original Innocence Project was founded in 1992 by Barry Scheck and Peter 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.^[3]

Worldwide

The Innocence Project is a member of the Innocence Network, which brings together a growing number of innocence organizations from across the United States. It includes members from other English-speaking common law countries—the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Ireland.^[4]

In South Africa, the Wits Justice Project investigates South African incarcerations. In partnership with the Wits Law Clinic, the Legal Resource Centre (LRC), the Open Democracy Advice Centre (ODAC), the Julia Mashele Trust, and the US Innocence Project, the Justice Project investigates individual cases of prisoners wrongly convicted or awaiting trial.^[5]

Mission

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 performs 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.

In the decision of District Attorney's Office v. Osborne (2009), US Supreme Court Chief Justice Roberts wrote that post-conviction challenge "poses 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 a fear 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."^[6]

Wrongful convictions

As of January 2012, 283 people previously convicted of serious crimes in the United States had been exonerated by DNA testing since 1989, seventeen of whom had been sentenced to death. Almost all (99%) of the convictions proven to be false were of males,^[7] with minority groups also disproportionately represented (approximately 70%).^[8]

• In 2007, after an investigation begun by The Innocence Project, James Calvin Tillman was exonerated after serving 18 years in prison for a rape he did not commit. His sentence was 45 years.

• In 2007, Floyd Brown was exonerated for the murder of an 80 year old woman in Wadesboro, NC. In prison since 1993, Brown served 14 years in Dorothea Dix Hospital. Twenty nine at the time of the murder, Brown had the mental capacity of 7 year old. There was no physical evidence to convict him, only a false confession written by a State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) agent. The claim was that Brown dictated the confession to the SBI agent but given his mental state at the time, there is no possibility that he could have given such a detailed confession. Floyd was convicted solely on the false confession and was not given the opportunity to stand trial because he was ruled incompetent to stand trial. Because of the injustice, Floyd Brown is now in the process of suing the state of North Carolina.^[9]

• In December 2009, James Bain was exonerated by DNA testing for a kidnapping, burglary, and rape he did not commit. Bain's appeal had previously been denied four separate times. His 35-year imprisonment made him the longest-incarcerated victim of a wrongful conviction to be freed through DNA evidence.^[10][11]

• In June 2010, Barry Gibbs was awarded the largest civil rights settlement by the City of New York to date of $9.9 million.^[12] He received an additional $1.9 million settlement from New York state in late 2009. He was wrongly convicted of the 1986 murder of Brooklyn prostitute Virginia Robertson based on coerced testimony by a witness during the investigation by NYPD detective Louis Eppolito. Gibbs' original sentence was 20 years to life for the murder, of which he served just under 19 years. Gibbs never expressed remorse for his crime to the parole board, on the grounds that he was innocent and had no remorse. Every two years at his review, the board denied his parole because of his lack of remorse. Gibbs was exonerated in 2006 with help from the Innocence Project. In addition, the conviction of former detective Eppolito for his sideline as a mob hit man and the change in testimony by a witness in Gibbs' case helped him.^[13]

• In September 2010, days before he was to be executed, Kevin Keith was granted clemency by Ohio Governor Ted Strickland,^[14][15] thanks in part to Ohio's Innocent Project.^[16][17]

• In February 2010, Greg Taylor was exonerated for the murder of a North Carolina young female prostitute. Arrested in 1991 and convicted a few years later, Taylor served 17 years in prison. Taylor did cooperate with the police and even offered DNA samples and willing to take a polygraph test. Police charged Greg Taylor and Johnny Beck for the murder of the woman. Yet police wanted Taylor to incriminate Beck but he refused. With the help of Christine Mumma of the North Carolina Center of Actual Innocence, Taylor was freed. Mumma was able to prove the lack of physical evidence towards Taylor and the flawed process. Also, the SBI failed to report all of their testing results during Taylor’s original trial and misrepresented the evidence. Taylor describes this experience as “The perfect storm of bad luck.”^[9]

United States Innocence Projects

In the history of the United States there have been two hundred and eighty post-convictions due to DNA testing^[8] According to the New York Innocence Project these statistics were found on those exonerated:

• The average sentence served thirteen years^[8]
• 70 percent exonerated are a part of minority groups^[8]
• 40 percent of these DNA cases were able to find the actual person who committed the crime.^[8]

There have been exoneration in Washington D.C and 35 states. There are innocence projects in the majority of the 50 states.^[8]

New York

New York, NY is where the Innocence Project originated. The majority of clients that are helped are those who are of low socio-economic status and have used all possible legal options for justice. Before investigating a case, clients undergo a screening process in order to figure out whether or not DNA testing will lead to a wrongful conviction. Many clients are hoping that DNA evidence will prove their innocence in their cases. With the emergence of DNA testing, those who have been wrongly convicted of a crime have been able to challenge their cases. The Innocence Project also works with the local, state and federal levels of law enforcement and legislator along with other programs to prevent further wrongful convictions.^[1]

North Carolina

The North Carolina Center on Actual Innocence coordinates innocence projects among all North Carolina law schools. The center is responsible for the exonerations of Dwayne Allen Dail, Keith Brown, Joseph Abbitt and more. On average, the center receives 1,000 requests but is only has a case load of about 130.^[18]

Innocence Network

The Innocence Project is also a founding members of the Innocence Network, an organization of law and journalism schools along with public defense offices that work together to help convicted felons prove their innocence.^[1] Forty six American states along with several other countries are a part of the network. In 2010, twenty nine people were exonerated worldwide from the work of the members of this organization.^[19]

Causes

There are a plethora of reasons why wrongful convictions occur. Reasons can range from false confessions and false eyewitness identification to tunnel vision by investigators lack of effective representation from defense attorneys.^[18]

In popular culture

• In the non-fiction book, The Innocent Man, John Grisham recounted the case of Dennis Fritz, who was assisted on appeal by the Innocence Project and freed by DNA evidence, after being wrongfully convicted of the murder of Debra Ann Carter.
• The Exonerated (2002) is a play by Erik Jensen and Jessica Blank about six people who had been wrongly convicted and sentenced to death, but were exonerated.
• The Innocence Project was featured in the documentary After Innocence (2005).
• Conviction (2010), is a film about the exoneration of Kenneth Waters, who was a client of the Innocence Project. Hilary Swank plays Waters' sister Betty Anne, who went to college and law school to fight for his freedom, and Sam Rockwell plays Waters. Barry Scheck is portrayed by Peter Gallagher.

See also

External links

• Innocence Project home page
• The Innocence Network members page—a listing of Innocence Projects around the United States
• Innocent Network UK
• Times Online article about Innocence Projects in the UK
• Griffith College Dublin - Innocence Project in Ireland (Irish: Tionscadal Neamhchiontachta na hÉireann)
• "On the Trail of the Innocent" by Michelle McDonagh, Irish Times, Tuesday, May 26, 2009.

Notes