By Jedidiah Price Yuknavich, Staff Writer
Photo provided courtesy of Unsplash.com
Have you ever wondered how an innocent person is helped from being wrongfully convicted? What are some of the steps a lawyer may pursuit if they are interested in wrongful conviction? Maybe you are a law student hoping to gain more experience in wrongful conviction. One program that allows you to learn more information and research wrongful conviction is the Pennsylvania Innocence Project.
The Pennsylvania Innocence Project is a statewide program that works to “protect the innocent from being convicted and to acquit those who have been convicted of crimes they did not commit.” [1] In 2008, a group of lawyers founded the Pennsylvania Innocence Project at Temple University Beasley School of Law. [2] The Pennsylvania Innocence Project has a four-part mission statement: (1) obtaining the exoneration, release from imprisonment, and restoration to society of persons who are innocent and have been wrongly convicted; (2) providing clinical training and experience to students in the fields of law, journalism, criminal justice, and forensic science; (3) collaborating with law enforcement agencies and the courts to address systemic causes of wrongful convictions; and (4) strengthening and improving the effectiveness of the criminal justice system in Pennsylvania through public education and advocacy. [3]
According to the Pennsylvania Innocence Project, in ten years of work, they have secured or help to secure the exoneration of sixteen men and women convicted of crimes such as murder, robbery, rape, etc. Additionally, they have “helped Tyrone Jones, a juvenile lifer, Robert Outlaw and Rusty Brensinger, come home on parole while still fighting for their exoneration.” [4]
The Pennsylvania Innocence Project operated from one office in Philadelphia for seven years. [5] In 2016, the project created a second office at Duquesne University where both Duquesne University law students and the University of Pittsburgh law students “assist the project’s legal staff and volunteer attorneys to investigate innocence claims and pursuit judicial appeals.” [6] According to the University of Pittsburgh, the practicum will allow students to become familiar with Pennsylvania post-conviction and federal habeas corpus law. [7] The course description includes that students will “gain an understanding of some of the most common reasons that our criminal justice system fails resulting in the convicted innocent.” [8]
A decade since opening, the Pennsylvania Innocent Project has continued to expand and has added programs with the Thomas R. Kline Drexel School of Law, the University of Pennsylvania Law School, Rutgers Law School, and Penn State School of Law. [9] The Pennsylvania Innocent Project supported Act 146, which gives more convicted individuals time to file a petition in court whenever new evidence of innocence is uncovered, and Act 147 which allows those who pleaded guilty or who have served their sentence to request for DNA testing for new evidence. [10] In 2018, Governor Tom Wolf signed both Act 146 and Act 147 into la [11]
Under a trained volunteer supervisor, law student volunteers can begin pro bono hours after attending a training session at a Pennsylvania law school campus. [12] The student interns typically work on one case and work between four to thirty hours per week. [13] Each summer, the Innocence Project welcomes law student interns in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh to work on individual cases and to assists with investigation and litigation. [14] In addition, undergraduate students can receive work-study course credit through the Pennsylvania Innocence Project by working five to ten hours per week, with duties including obtaining case files from court, event organization, and blog posts. [15]
Lawyers, law students, and undergraduates that want to learn more about wrongful conviction can volunteer and intern with the Pennsylvania Innocence Project. The expansion of the Project has created more availability to the field of law to volunteer and collaborate about wrongful convictions.
[1] https://www.duq.edu/academics/schools/law/clinics-and-externships/externships/pennsylvania-innocence-project
[2] https://www.innocenceprojectpa.org/about
[3] Id. at 2
[4] Id. at 2
[5] https://www.duq.edu/academics/schools/law/clinics-and-externships/externships/pennsylvania-innocence-project
[6] Id. at 4
[7] https://www.law.pitt.edu/academics/courses/28580
[8] Id. at 6
[9] https://www.innocenceprojectpa.org/about
[10] https://www.innocenceprojectpa.org/criminal-justice-reform
[11] Id. at 9
[12] https://www.innocenceprojectpa.org/Intern-Volunteer
[13] Id. at 11
[14] Id. at 11
[15] Id. at 11
