Innocence Project, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit legal organization that uses DNA testing and other forms of post-conviction relief to exonerate and free prisoners who they believe have been wrongly convicted. The organization also advocates for criminal justice reform to prevent future injustice. The group cites various studies estimating that in the United States between 1% and 10% of all prisoners are innocent. The Innocence Project was founded in 1992 by attorneys Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld, who gained national attention in the mid-1990s as part of the "Dream Team" of lawyers who formed part of the defense in the O. J. Simpson murder case. As of 2025, the Innocence Project has participated in successfully overturned 254 convictions through DNA-based exonerations, and has confirmed guilt in about 40% of the cases they closedly examined. In 2021, the Innocence Project received the biennial Milton Friedman Prize for Advancing Liberty from the Cato Institute, awarded in recognition and gratitude for its work to ensure liberty and justice for all. In March 2022, the Innocence Project won two Webby Awards for its Happiest Moments video, winning the Best Humanitarian & Services campaign in both the brand and non-profit categories. Happiest Moments was the organization's first public service announcement, premiering in June 2021 and produced by Hayden5.
Founding
The Innocence Project was established in the wake of a study by the U.S. Department of Justice and U.S. Senate, in conjunction with Yeshiva University's Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, which found that incorrect identification by eyewitnesses was a factor in over 70% of wrongful convictions. The Innocence Project was founded in 1992 by Scheck and Neufeld as part of a law clinic at Cardozo. The organization became an independent 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization on January 28, 2003, but it maintains institutional connections with Cardozo. Madeline deLone was the executive director from 2004 until 2020, succeeded by Christina Swarns, who argues before the United States Supreme Court before joining the group, on September 8, 2020. The Innocence Project is the headquarters of the Innocence Network, a group of about 70 independent organizations worldwide with similar goals. 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's self-stated mission is "to free the staggering number of innocent people who remain incarcerated, and to bring reform to the system responsible for their unjust imprisonment." The Innocence Project focuses exclusively on post-conviction appeals 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 helped inspire 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), U.S. 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: "[Post-conviction challenges] might lead to a reasonably accurate [legal system]." As of June 2018, the Innocence Project's funding sources include 55% from individual contributions, 16% from foundations, 16% from events, 8% from investments, and 5% from corporations, Yeshiva University, and other sources.
Work The Innocence Project originated in New York City but accepts cases from other parts of the country. 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 claim to 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. 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, resources permitting. About 2,400 prisoners write to the Innocence Project annually, and at any given time the Innocence Project is evaluating 6,000 to 8,000 potential cases. In addition to their co-directors and a managing attorney, the Innocence Project has six full-time staff attorneys and nearly 300 active cases. In almost 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 so far, 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. Overall, the Innocence Project's DNA exonerations identified several contributors of wrongful convictions, including mistaken eyewitness identifications, invalid forensic science, false confessions, informants who lied, and government misconduct.
… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.
