The Innocence Project was founded in 1992 by Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld at the Cardozo Law School of Yeshiva University in New York City. It has assisted in about two-thirds of the 131 DNA exonerations in the United States since 1976. Twelve of these were death row cases. The work is done by law students on a voluntary basis under supervision. The professors select 20 students and it is “very competitive,” according to Madeleine Severin, one of the students in the project. Each student serves a one-year term and is given five or six cases.
The first step in the process is for the assistant director of the Innocence Project, Huy Dao, to screen the cases. Prisoners initially send in a summary of the crime. Then they must send whatever documents they have to Dao, who decides if they qualify. In order to be accepted there must theoretically be biological evidence, even if it is not actually available.
The evidence must be blood, semen, saliva, sweat, hair, or skin, which came from the alleged perpetrator at the crime scene. If it is recovered, the cost of the testing is between $1,500 and $4,000. Most rapes would qualify, but less than 10 percent of murders would. Unless there was a struggle, or the attacker had gotten blood or one of the other substances on clothing, there would be nothing to test. (The Innocence Project also helped to found the Innocence Network—a chain of 25 affiliate organizations, which often work on cases where DNA testing is not possible.)
After the initial investigation, the work shifts to the students. They start on an evidence hunt that takes from a few months to four years to finish. Out of the cases accepted, 75 percent have to be abandoned because evidence has been........
