Innocence Project^®

The Duke Innocence Project^®, a volunteer student organization with the same mission as the Wrongful Convictions Clinic, works to exonerate victims of wrongful convictions by investigating claims of actual innocence. The Project receives its cases from the North Carolina Center on Actual Innocence, a non-profit organization (Professors Coleman and Newman sit on the board), which is the primary intake organization for North Carolina inmates' claims of actual innocence. After those claims are initially screened by the Center, the surviving claims are distributed to Innocence Projects at a number of the states' law schools. The Duke Innocence Project is currently the most robust project, with approximately seventy-five student members. The members of the Project conduct further reviews of inmates' claims, most often focusing on the available documents in the cases, including the trial transcripts, appellate opinions, inmate questionnaires and other correspondence, defense attorney files, and other related documents. After completing a careful review according to set criteria and guidelines, the various student teams present their conclusions to the Project leadership, faculty advisers, and the executive director of the North Carolina Center on Actual Innocence. Occasionally, as with this year, the Project teams are conducting more advanced reviews, involving somewhat deeper investigation. Comprehensive investigations are conducted by the Wrongful Convictions Clinic.