Innocence and Justice Clinic
The Innocence & Justice Clinic is a new clinical offering at Wake Forest University School of Law commencing in Spring 2009. The I & J Clinic has its origins in the Forsyth Innocence Project program that began in 2007 where Wake Forest students worked in teams to review and investigate claims of innocence to determine whether DNA evidence exists that could exonerate inmates. The I & J Clinic will expand the mission of the Innocence Project by providing students with the opportunity to review and investigate all types of innocence claims and pursue litigation when appropriate. The course offers students the unique opportunity to examine the legal, scientific, cultural and psychological causes of wrongful convictions.
The weekly two-hour seminar will cover such topics as: mistaken eyewitness identification; false confessions; junk forensic science; the role of forensic DNA testing; post-conviction remedies for innocence claims; the use of “jailhouse snitches” and cooperating witnesses; police and prosecutorial misconduct; incompetent lawyering; policy and legislative reforms; innocence and the death penalty; re-entry programs and post-conviction remedies. The I & J Clinic will work in close cooperation with The Darryl Hunt Project for Freedom and Justice and The North Carolina Center on Actual Innocence.
If you have any further questions please contact:
Prof. Carol A. Turowski at carolturowski@hotmail.com
or 336.758.6111
