The Innocence Project : A National Litigation Organization

The Innocence Project In 1992, Barry C. Scheck and Peter J. Neufeld founded the public policy organization, The Innocence Project. It was founded at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, in New York City, with the purpose of “exonerating wrongfully convicted individuals through DNA testing and reforming the criminal justice system to prevent future injustice.”

The project has campaigned to expand rights of convicted and the right to undergo DNA evaluation. Some have wanted rights to utilize DNA testing because it was extremely avoid the innocence from serving time and reduce the number of convictions. They have created the organization to be sided with the suspect as they have no useful resources to proclaim their innocence and provide pro bono services and pays off all investigation and litigation costs of all

We will examine the importance of DNA in the conviction of Tommie Lee Andrews and the significance of this decision in the United States Judicial System. We will discuss an overview of some of the essential elements in conducting utilizing this DNA evidence and its repercussions. This case signified the first time in the United Sates that DNA evidence was actually admissible in court proceedings during a criminal trial.

DNA AS EVIDENCE DNA testing was first used in criminal prosecutions in 1985 and is now admissible in all states. (Hails, 184) Scientific and legal communities seem to universally accept the use of DNA as “good” evidence. Questions could arise regarding testing procedures. There are several testing methods that have been proven reliable and easily pass general acceptance and scientific validity tests. This is causes number of Daubert cases questioning DNA to decline. “In most cases, the tests that are used are well established and do not require a separate hearing” (Hails, 160)

Title Page Title: The Innocence Project Author: Naomi Douglas Date: 9th March 2012 Contents * The Innocence Project Organisation * Death Row * Two Cases * Niamh Gunn

Innocence Project ___ Who What When Where and Why What is the innocence project? The Innocence Project is a non-profit organization that is used to free wrongly convicted people through the use of DNA testing and to reform the criminal justice system to prevent future injustice.

Title Page Title: The Innocence Project Author: Naomi Douglas Date: 9th March 2012 Contents * The Innocence Project Organisation * Death Row * Two Cases * Niamh Gunn * YouTube, Books * References The Innocence Project Organisation: This Organisation is a non-profit Legal organisation dedicated to exonerating wrongfully convicted people through DNA testing and reforming the criminal justice system to prevent future injustices. The Innocence Project was established in 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

Literature Review With the number of DNA exonerations growing in the recent years, wrongful convictions reveal disturbing trends and fissures in the justice system. It shows how broken the system is, and why it needs urgent fixing. According to Huff (1996), over ten thousand people are convicted wrongfully for serious crimes each year. This study established that factors leading to wrongful convictions are false eyewitnesses, a prejudiced jury, incompetent prosecutors, and suspects’ ignorance. Where DNA evidence clears a suspect, array of reasons emerge; misconduct, mistakes, to race and class factors. It is important to make DNA data available to attorneys in order to enable them mount a strong

This report acts as guidelines for handling post-conviction DNA testing. These guidelines explore the legal and biological issues. Also, a set of guidelines are recommended for prosecutors, defense counsel, judiciary, victim assistance and laboratory assistance. This report also examines the impact on DNA testing on exonerations.

Maryland readers would like to believe the criminal justice system is always fair. However, studies show that eyewitness misidentification commonly leads to wrongful convictions. For example, on June 25, the California Innocence Project announced that DNA testing recently exonerated a San Diego resident who was wrongfully convicted of rape. The

With the initiative of the innocence project, many of these convictions are being overturned, allowing families to be reunited. There are many reasons why these wrongful convictions happen. The most common among them is false eyewitness identification, which has played a role in more than 75 percent of wrongful convictions

We do not now how many innocent individuals are currently imprisoned, but we have an idea of the number of people who have been exonerated of crimes for which they were convicted. The National Registry of Exonerations has identified 1491 men and women who have been exonerated from state facilities since 1989 in the United States (University of Michigan Law School, 2015). From 2005 to 2014, there was an average of 64 exonerations from state facilities per year, with exonerees serving an average of twelve years. The Innocence Project (2015), which takes cases in which DNA analysis can be used to prove a prisoner is innocent, has secured 329 post-conviction DNA exonerations and is actively working on 250-300 cases.

The Innocence Project was established in the wake of a landmark study by the United States Department of Justice and the United States Senate with help from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law (Schneider, 2013). This study found that there were numerous reasons why people are wrongfully convicted including, but not limited to eye witness identification, perjured testimony, improper forensic science techniques, and government misconduct (Roberts & Weathered, 2009) The original Innocence Project was founded twenty two (22) years ago as a part of the Cardoza School of Law of Yeshiva University in New York City, New York (Davis, 2012). The Innocence Projects primary goal is to exonerate those whom have been convicted of a crime when there is DNA evidence available to be tested or re-tested (Mitchell, 2011). DNA testing has been possible in five (5) percent to ten (10) percent of cases since 1992 (Risinger, 2007). On the other side, other members of the Innocence Project help to exonerate those have been convicted of a crime where there is no DNA evidence to test. A goal of the Innocence Project is to conduct research on the reasons for wrongful convictions, how to fix the criminal justice system, as well as advocate for those who have been wrongfully convicted (Steiker & Steiker, 2005). The members of this organization strive to teach the world about the dangers of wrongful convictions. To date, this non-profit legal organization, has freed three hundred eighteen (318)

The innocence project was started by two individuals, Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld. They started this project back in 1992 in hopes of helping the wrongfully convicted individuals that had been placed in jail through DNA testing, and also wished to further prevent such cases from happening again (Innocence Project [IP], 2016). From 1992 to 2013 there has been 290 DNA based exonerations of innocent people (Gitschier, 2013, p.1). This project has help countless amounts of individuals and their families, as it has brought peace to something they had been wrongfully convicted of. With these countless wrongfully convicted peoples being let out for something they did not commit means there are people that could still possibly be out there not serving

Every year the miscarriage of justice becomes an increasing problem in the United States, due to disquieting issues and crevices within the criminal justice system. Individuals such as William Dillon, have served protracted sentences for deplorable crimes which they did not commit. Over time, innocence group projects’ have exposed wrongful convictions through new advances in forensic science and reforms in the system. Among these advances, contains the evolution of DNA testing and the competence to apply the biology of the body’s cells to resolve crimes. This has produced meaningful changes in the criminal justice field, giving hope that freedom may be near for the wrongly convicted. Still, the battle has yet to be won for many innocent victims