Read First-Hand Accounts

With each passing year, thousands of people across the country continue to sit in prision cells serving time for crimes they didn't commit. Since 1989, post-conviction DNA testing has been used to exonerate 342 of those innocent people, 20 of whom were serving on death row. The Innocence Project has been at the forefront of many of those cases and their team continues to work tirelessly to reclaim the freedoms of the wrongfully convicted. However, there is still a long way to go and the negative effects on the innocent can't be undone. Many of these innocent people have lost upwards of 14 years of their lives being punished for someone else's crimee and the painful memories will stay with them forever. Read the first-hand accounts of people the Innocence Project helped to exonerate. 

Improve The Criminal Justice System

The Innocence Project will continue to take on as many cases as possible to ensure the freedoms of the innocent, but the only way widespread change can happen is by changing the laws. That's why the Innocence Project's policy department works day in and day out with officials on the national, state and local levels to fight for a better criminal justice system. The team advocates for reforms that address the following contributors to wrongful convictions:

• Eyewitness mididentification
• Unvalidated and improper forensic science
• False confessions
• Informants
• Governments Misconduct
• Inadequate defense

See the progress your state is making in address these issues, read about what the Innocence Project's policy team is doing to help and learn about why reform is needed to improve the criminal justice system as a whole. 

The Central Park Five

In 1989, five innocent teenagers were arrested and served time for a crime they didn't commit. Years later these men, known as the Central Park 5, have been exonerated and are now doing their part to help others who have been wrongfully convicted. They've joined forced with the Innocence Project for the #EndNYWrongfulConviction campaign. This movement aims to get legislators in Albany to pass a bill that requires police to record the entire interrogation process to protect against misidentification and false confession. Watch the five men explain the campaign and learn more about how you can get involved.