The Innocence Project is a national litigation and public policy organization that works to exonerate people wrongfully convicted through DNA testing and other scientific advances, as well as to reform the criminal justice system to prevent future injustices. The organization only accepts post-conviction appeal cases where DNA testing can prove innocence. If the case doesn't involve biological evidence or DNA, Innocence Network can provide legal and broader research assistance. As an expert in the field of criminal justice, I have seen first-hand the power of DNA testing to exonerate innocent people.
DNA testing accounts for only about 15% of all exonerations in the United States, but it is an invaluable tool for proving innocence. To further their mission, the Innocence Project hosts an annual virtual meeting called Just Data, which brings together diverse stakeholders to foster the social sciences and promote practical research. One of the lessons learned from examining more than 375 DNA exonerations is that innocent people can confess to crimes they didn't commit for various reasons. Social scientists and legal scholars have studied the ways in which human psychology and specific interrogation techniques influence the risk of a false confession. From these studies, they provide ideas and recommendations. The Ohio Innocence Project and the Innocence Project, in collaboration with the Innocence Network and the International Association of Police Chiefs, created a series of educational videos that present various ways in which human factors can lead to wrongful convictions.
Additionally, Innocence Research offers a collection of scholarships, popular media, upcoming conferences and meetings, and other useful resources for teachers, policy makers, researchers, and the general public. The Innocence Project is not affiliated with an organization operating under the name “American Innocence Project”. In nearly half of the cases addressed by the Innocence Project, clients' culpability is reconfirmed by DNA testing. To highlight the contributions of statisticians working in this area, the Inocence Project helped coordinate a special issue of Significance, a journal of the Royal Statistical Society and the American Statistical Association. Of all the cases addressed by the Innocence Project so far, around 43% of clients were proven innocent, 42% confirmed guilty, and the evidence was inconclusive or evidentiary in 15% of the cases. Some 2,400 prisoners write to the Innocence Project each year and, at any given time, they evaluate between 6,000 and 8,000 potential cases.
The Innocence Project also works with local, state, and federal levels of law enforcement, legislators, and other programs to prevent further wrongful convictions. It is estimated that 1% of all prisoners are innocent. This means that there are more than 20,000 innocent people in prison. The Innocence Project is dedicated to helping these individuals get justice by providing legal assistance and resources for those who may have been wrongfully convicted.
