 | |
| Formation | 1992 |
|---|---|
| Founder | |
| Founded at | |
| Type | Nonprofit organization |
| 32-0077563 | |
| Legal status | 501(c)(3) |
| Purpose |
|
| Headquarters | 40 Worth Street, Suite 701 New York, NY 10013 |
Region
| United States |
Executive Director
| Maddy deLone |
| Vered Rabia | |
| Affiliations | The Innocence Network |
Revenue (2018)
| $13,426,018 |
| Expenses (2018) | $13,608,849 |
| Endowment | $21,620,304 (2018) |
Employees (2017)
| 88 |
Volunteers (2017)
| 17 |
| Website | www |
The Innocence Project is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit 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. The group cites various studies estimating that in the United States, between 2.3% and 5% of all prisoners are innocent. The Innocence Project was founded in 1992 by Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld.
As of November 17, 2019, the Innocence Project has worked on 189 successful DNA-based exonerations.
Founding
The Innocence Project was established in the wake of a study by the United States Department of Justice and 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. 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) nonprofit organization on January 28, 2003, but it maintains institutional connections with Cardozo. As of September 5, 2018, the executive director of the Innocence Project is Madeline deLone.
The Innocence Project has become widespread as countries are
using scientific data to overturn wrongful convictions and in turn
freeing those wrongly convicted. One such example exists in the Republic of Ireland where in 2009 a project was set up at Griffith College Dublin.
Mission
The Innocence Project focuses on cases in which DNA evidence is available to be tested or retested. DNA testing is possible in 5–10% of criminal cases. 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 releasing 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 criminal executions.
In 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 the opinion, another justice
wrote that forensic science has "serious deficiencies". Roberts also
said that post-conviction DNA testing risks "unnecessarily overthrowing
the established system of criminal justice." Law professor Kevin Jon
Heller wrote: "It might lead to a reasonably accurate one."
Overturned convictions
As of November 2019,
367 people previously convicted of serious crimes in the United States
had been exonerated by DNA testing since 1989, 21 of whom had been
sentenced to death. Almost all (99%) of the wrongful convictions were of males, with minority groups constituting approximately 70% (61% African American and 8% Latino).
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.
According to a study published in 2014, more than 4% of persons overall
sentenced to death from 1973 to 2004 are probably innocent. The following are examples of notable exonerations:
- In 2003, Steven Avery was exonerated after serving 18 years in prison for a sexual assault charge. After his release, he was convicted of murder.
- In 2004, Darryl Hunt was exonerated after serving 19 1/2 years in prison of a life sentence for the rape and murder of a newspaper copy editor, Deborah Sykes.
- In 2007, after an investigation begun by The Innocence Project, James Calvin Tillman was exonerated after serving 16 1/2 years in prison for a rape he did not commit. His sentence was 45 years.
- In 2014, Glenn Ford was exonerated in the murder of Isadore Newman. Ford, an African American, had been convicted by an all-white jury without any physical evidence linking him to the crime, and with testimony withheld. He served 30 years on death row in Angola Prison before his release.
Work
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.
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.
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.
Funding
The
Innocence Project receives 45% of its funding from individual
contributions, 30% from foundations, 15% from an annual benefit dinner,
7% from the Cardozo School of Law, and the rest from corporations.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Causes of wrongful conviction
There
are many reasons why wrongful convictions occur. The most common reason
is false eyewitness identification, which played a role in more than
75% of wrongful convictions overturned by the Innocence Project. Often
assumed to be incontrovertible, a growing body of evidence suggests that
eyewitness identifications are unreliable.
Another cause for misidentification is when a "show-up" procedure
occurs. This is where a suspect is shown at the scene of a crime in a
poorly lit lot or in a police car. Someone might also misidentify when
they learn more about the suspect; it may cause them to change their
description.
Unreliable or improper forensic science played a role in some 50%
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.
In about 25% of DNA exoneration cases, innocent people were
coerced into making false confessions. Many of these false confessors
went on to plead guilty to crimes they did not commit (usually to avoid a
harsher sentence, or even the death penalty).
Government misconduct, inadequate legal counsel, and the improper use of informants also contributed to many of the wrongful convictions since overturned by the Innocence Project.
In popular culture
Film
- After Innocence (2005) is a documentary that features the Innocence Project.
- 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.
Literature
- In the non-fiction book, The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town (2006), John Grisham recounted the cases of Ron Williamson and Dennis Fritz, who were assisted on appeal by the Innocence Project and freed by DNA evidence, after being wrongfully convicted of the murder of Debra Ann Carter.
Podcasts
- Serial Season 1 referenced the Innocence Project in episode 7 where Deirdre Enright, director of investigation for the Innocence Project at the University of Virginia School of Law, and a team of law students analyzed the case against Adnan Syed.
Stage productions
- 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.
Television
- In Justice is an American television series with a similar premise.
- Castle is an American television series; in the episode "Like Father, Like Daughter" (season 6, episode 7), the Innocence Project was mentioned, as well as Frank Henson who was wrongfully convicted in 1998 of the death of Kimberly Tolbert.
- The Innocence Project, a BBC One drama series that aired from 2006 to 2007, is based on a UK version of the Innocence Project.
- The Innocence Project was discussed in season 2, episode 9 of The Good Wife, "Nine Hours" (December 14, 2010). Innocence Project co-founder Barry Scheck played himself in the episode, which was largely based on the actual Innocence Project case of Cameron Todd Willingham. Cary Agos, a recurring character on The Good Wife, is said to have worked for the Innocence Project after law school (and is a family friend of Scheck's).
- In season six of Suits, a US legal dramedy, law student and paralegal Rachel Zane takes on an Innocence Project for a man wrongfully accused of murder.
- In season three of Riverdale, a dark reimagining of the Archie Comics universe, Veronica Lodge mentions starting a chapter of the Innocence Project to help free her boyfriend Archie Andrews from prison following being falsely convicted of murder.
