Each student will summarize and present the case of an Innocence Project exoneree. An exoneree is a convicted criminal who is discharged from liability through a court order; in other words, a person convicted of a crime is later proven to be innocent. The Innocence Project works to exonerate the wrongly convicted through DNA testing. Click here (https://innocenceproject.org/all-cases/#exonerated-by-dna) to read about the convicts who the Innocence Project successfully exonerated. 1. SELECT a case (by name). IDENTIFY the name, the state, charge(s), sentence, incident date, exoneration date, and time served. 2. SUMMARIZE how the person was wrongfully convicted. What were the contributing causes to the wrongful conviction? 3. How was the person exonerated i.e. what did the Innocence Project do to convince the state that the person was innocent? Part 2 1. Each student will conduct a one-question interview with an attorney working for the Innocence Project. There are many state Innocence Project programs. Click here to go to the list. Visit your state’s Innocence Project website (or the one closest to the state of Texas). Locate the contact information and email (or call) Explain that you are a college student, in a Criminal Law class, and you have a project concerning the Innocence Project. Respectfully request a response to the following one question: “In your opinion, and based upon your knowledge and experience, what is the most contributing cause to wrongful conviction, and how could this be remedied?” Identify the name of the person you interviewed and insert the question followed by the answer.
