What Is The Innocence Project: Right Or Wrong?

During the year of 2015, a case that the Innocence Project was working on at the time was the Joseph Buffey Case. Joseph Buffey was convicted in 2001 in West Virginia of rape and robbery. Mr. Buffey pled guilty to the crimes based on the advise of his counsel and witness misidentification which was the heart of this investigation. On May 11, 2015, Mr. Buffey was excluded by DNA and the real perpetrator was later found. Mr. Buffey served a total of 15 years in prison for a crime that he did not commit. DNA Exonerations makes up 334 total cases that the Innocence Project has worked on. The following numbers overlap with the 334 cases. 237 cases involved misidentification by witnesses, 154 were the result of improper forensics, 92 were due to

For example, Former Tight End for the New England Patriots Mr. Aaron Hernandez, was sentenced to life in jail after killing his sister in laws fiancé

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 factor in over 70% of

Well, in nearly 25 years since post-conviction DNA evidence has been used to demonstrate criminal innocence, even in cases that landed defendants on death row or in prison for life. Eyewitness misidentification, forensic science errors, false confessions, government misconduct and bad lawyering are many of the reasons wrongful convictions occur. Eyewitness being the most common. Sometimes it can be done by error and other times it is actually done intentionally. In seventy-seven percent of the DNA exonerations, eyewitness misidentification led to wrongful convictions (The Innocence Project- How wrongful conviction happen).

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

Well, in nearly 25 years since post-conviction DNA evidence has been used to demonstrate criminal innocence, even in cases that landed defendants on death row or in prison for life. Eyewitness misidentification, forensic science errors, false confessions, government misconduct and bad lawyering are many of the reasons wrongful convictions occur. Eyewitness being the most common. Sometimes it can be done by error and other times it is actually done intentionally. In seventy-seven percent of the DNA exonerations, eyewitness misidentification led to wrongful convictions (The Innocence Project- How wrongful conviction happen).

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

For example the case Derek Bentley, a vulnerable teenager, who was hanged despite public outrage in 1953 after being convicted of murder under joint enterprise law as he was accused of murdering a police officer. His conviction was overturned almost fifty years later exclusively due to the efforts of his sister Iris. His sister Iris made a massive campaign, which was initially led by Derek’s parents until they died, which led to his remains being removed from Wandsworth Prison and reburied in a family grave.

Thanks to an organization called “The Innocence Project” and Peter Neufeld (Lawyer & Co-founder), both Brooks and Brewer were eventually cleared of the wrongful convictions and released. Neufeld stated that there have been hundreds of people who were wrongfully convicted based on “Bite Mark” testimony. Neufeld further stated that a study of the cases of people who were exonerated by DNA evidence showed that 60% of those cases involved invalid evidence or misapplication of science.

In the summer of 1994 an Illinois woman’s buzzer rang at her apartment complex in Waukegan. She went downstairs to check after nobody went upstairs to her apartment. As soon as she reached the door downstairs, two men forced her into a dark colored sedan, kidnapped her, and raped her. Distraught after her attack, the victim wandered until she ultimately found a Seven Eleven close by and the police were called. When the police arrived, the victim said she was attacked by two Hispanic men that looked to be in their mid-twenties and a bit taller than her height of five feet and seven inches. The car that she was forced into was described as dark colored, older, having four doors and tinted windows. The victim’s boyfriend saw Angel Gonzalez’s car in the apartment complex parking lot and it matched the characteristics that the woman used to describe the assailant’s car. Police later stopped Gonzalez’s car and the victim acknowledged that the car was the one she described. She was then asked if Gonzalez was one of her attackers, and she was certain that he was, despite her being in the backseat of the police car while he was in front of it. Not only was he not close enough for her to get a clear view, but he also had facial hair and a birthmark, both characteristics that she did not use to describe her attackers. This led to Gonzalez being in police custody for interrogation where they did not allow him to sleep. When he was interrogated, he

There have been many incidents where cases have needed a solid prosecution in order to convict the defendant in a murder or rape case. This is where DNA Testing comes in to help. By taking a DNA test, a person can be found guilty or not guilty. If a person claims they have been raped there can be a sperm sample taken from the suspect in order to prove that he is guilty or not. In addition, in a murder case there can be blood taken from the suspect so they can tell of his innocence. There are several ways to determine whether a person is guilty or not by this method. Many cases have begun to use this method saying that it is foolproof. People say this is the method of the future of crime

Because there are many different types of crimes, it is often difficult to find enough physical evidence to convict a person. For example, in rape cases there is usually only a small amount of physical evidence, so cases are based on word alone. Because of DNA testing we can now take samples from the victim and attempt to match the results with those of the suspect. Therefore, DNA is sometimes the only real way of determining the guilt or innocence of a suspect without having any witnesses. Since many rape cases are left unsolved, DNA testing is believed to be the most accurate way of keeping sex offenders off the street. Because of the growing trend of using DNA in rape cases especially, a company in Brooklyn now advertises a small flashlight-like device intended to be used to jab at attackers in order to collect a sample of his skin for later use (Adler). According to a study by Joseph Peterson, with the Department of Criminal Justice at the University of Illinois, DNA evidence does not have a major impact on the decision to either convict or acquit

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)

In American society, justice is blind. Justice is commonly defined as a rightful or lawful act. Or in other terms to bring to justice, to come before a court for trial or to receive punishment for one’s misdeeds. Some believe it is fairly administered and equal. But lack within the criminal justice system make us question equality. There are two individual aspects of how justice can be served; the perspective of the victim and the perspective of the criminal "per say". I will be focusing on instances in which wrongfully people were punished for crimes they didn 't commit and families or victims thought justice was served. The first case in which justice was wrongfully served is the case of Louis Taylor. Louis Taylor did forty-one years to life for something he didn 't do. Secondly, Steven Avery served eighteen years for being wrongfully convicted for rape. Although in Avery 's case he was exonerated through DNA testing.

A wrongful conviction is a terrible injustice that is magnified when an actual innocent person spends years, sometimes even decades in prison and/or death row. This has been recognized by the U.S Legal system for quite some time now and the rising number of exonerations are growing.