Innocence Project Inc
THE INNOCENCE PROJECT, INC. (IP) IS A NATIONAL NONPROFIT WITH THE MISSION TO FREE INNOCENT PEOPLE WHO HAVE BEEN WRONGLY CONVICTED AND REFORM THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM TO PREVENT FUTURE INJUSTICE. THE IP HAS HELPED EXONERATE OVER 251 PEOPLE, A DISPROPORTIONATE NUMBER OF WHOM ARE PEOPLE OF COLOR AND SOME WHO WERE SENTENCED TO DEATH. CUMULATIVELY, THEY SPENT THOUSANDS OF YEARS IN PRISON FOR CRIMES THEY DID NOT COMMIT, AND IN MANY CASES, THE PERSON WHO ACTUALLY COMMITTED THE CRIME WENT ON TO COMMIT OTHERS. THE IP IS DEDICATED TO RESEARCHING, ANALYZING AND EDUCATING STAKEHOLDERS AND THE PUBLIC ON THE CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES OF WRONGFUL CONVICTIONS AND OTHER SYSTEMIC PROBLEMS. THE IP WORKS TO PASS LAWS AND PREVENT THE ADMISSIBILITY OF UNRELIABLE, NON-SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE TO PREVENT FUTURE MISCARRIAGES OF JUSTICE. FOUNDED IN 1992 AS A CLINIC AT CARDOZO SCHOOL OF LAW AT YESHIVA UNIVERSITY, THE IP INCORPORATED AS A 501(C)3 ORGANIZATION IN 2004, THOUGH IT MAINTAINS AN AFFILIATION WITH CARDOZO.
The Innocence Project was founded in 1992 by Barry C. Scheck and Peter J. Neufeld at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University to assist prisoners who could be proven innocent through DNA testing. To date, 289 people in the United States have been exonerated by DNA testing, including 17 who served time on death row. These people served an average of 13 years in prison before exoneration and release.
The Innocence Project’s full-time staff attorneys and Cardozo clinic students provide direct representation or critical assistance in most of these cases. The Innocence Project’s groundbreaking use of DNA technology to free innocent people has provided irrefutable proof that wrongful convictions are not isolated or rare events but instead arise from systemic defects. Now an independent nonprofit organization closely affiliated with Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University, the Innocence Project’s mission is nothing less than to free the staggering numbers of innocent people who remain incarcerated and to bring substantive reform to the system responsible for their unjust imprisonment.
With the generous support of individuals like you the Innocence Project has exonerated scores of innocent people and worked around the country to reform our criminal justice system. You too can support our work by donating to the Innocence Project: http://www.innocenceproject.org/fb_donate
PLEASE NOTE: We are unable to give legal advice or accept cases over Facebook. To find out how to contact us and submit your case for consideration, please visit our website here: http://www.innocenceproject.org/about/Contact-Us.php
