Wisconsin Innocence Project

The Wisconsin Innocence Project has three core missions:

to investigate and litigate wrongful convictions
to educate students through closely supervised work on possible wrongful convictions
to remedy the causes of wrongful convictions through scholarship, education, and collaboration with governmental and criminal justice agencies

About the Wisconsin Innocence Project

The revelation of wrongful convictions has shaken up the criminal justice system. Nationwide, law students in innocence projects across the country have worked to free hundreds of wrongly convicted inmates, giving them their lives back after years of unjust incarceration. Law students in the Wisconsin Innocence Project have worked to free nine people, relying in some cases on cutting-edge DNA technology, in other cases on old-fashioned investigation. Through their work on these cases, the students learn about the operation of the criminal justice system, and how our system, often touted as the best in the world, can sometimes go awry. In proving innocence years after a conviction, the students gain insight into how a wrongful conviction can occur, and how it might have been prevented.

In the News: Jarrett Adams Aims for Law School

In a new article for the National Defender Investigator Association Jarrett Adams speaks about his life during and after his incarceration. Adams discusses his hopes of attending law school and perhaps practicing criminal defense.

Wrongful Conviction Project Receives Department of Justice Grant

The U.S. Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Assistance has awarded $249,901 to the University of Wisconsin for the Wrongful Conviction Review Program conducted by the Wisconsin Innocence Project under the direction of Professor Keith Findley. The Innocence Project is a legal clinic at the Law School that screens applications, investigates, and, in some cases, litigates on behalf of wrongfully convicted clients.

The funding will allow the program to employ two full-time clinical instructors and a half-time Intake Specialist. The Clinical Instructors are experienced attorneys who will supervise law students as they review cases, visit courthouses, police departments, prisons and other locations to gather documents, speak with potential witnesses, and locate physical evidence. The funding will also cover the costs of consultation with DNA experts and DNA testing of biological evidence, as well as travel costs and other office expenses.

According to Findley, “This grant will allow us to continue and expand the work we have been doing finding new evidence to exonerate the innocent, drawing lessons from the wrongful conviction cases to improve the reliability of the criminal justice system, and providing first-class learning opportunities for law students. It reflects the importance of this work, and enables us to come one step closer to meeting the need for such services.”

News

Compensation for Exonorees

When wrongly convicted individuals are released from Wisconsin prisons, the State provides almost no support to help them get back on their feet and reclaim their shattered lives.

Currently, Wisconsin's statutory scheme is so outdated that it provides the least adequate compensation package in the country among states with such statutory provisions. At this time Wisconsin provides only $5,000 per year of wrongful imprisonment, this amount is capped at a maximum of $25,000. Furthermore, the state of Wisconsin does not provide any social services assistance, such as help with housing, health care, counseling, employment, or education.

To remedy these deficiencies, the Wisconsin Innocence Project is working with a bipartisan group of legislators on a bill that will update Wisconsin's statutory law and provide more meaningful and adequate assistance to individuals who suffer the horror of conviction for a crime they did not commit. To read about the issue, and the legislative proposal, see the links below.