Righting wrongs: Actual innocence project seeks justice
BY MICHELLE HERSHMAN, L’07
Imagine standing trial for a crime you didn’t commit. Imagine the jury reciting a verdict of guilty. Imagine spending 15 years in prison although you are actually innocent.
Marvin Anderson doesn’t have to imagine such a nightmare—he lived it, until the Innocence Project helped prove he had been wrongfully convicted.
The Innocence Project, started at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in New York, uses newly-developed DNA technology to set free wrongfully-convicted inmates. Peter Neufeld, co-founder along with Barry Scheck, brought Anderson to University of Richmond’s School of Law in fall 2004 to generate support for a similar program here.
Mary Kelly Tate, an attorney with experience in post-conviction and criminal work, was extremely impressed by Neufeld’s presentation. Afterward, she met with law school Dean Rod Smolla and volunteered to build an innocence program at the school.
“I truly believe Virginia is fertile ground for programs that aim to assist marginalized prisoners, especially those who have credible claims of factual innocence,” said Tate.
Smolla agreed Virginia would benefit from such a program and named Tate director of the Institute for Actual Innocence (IAI). She also serves as special assistant to the dean for pro bono services.
Two years later, IAI is an academic program with clinical and classroom components dedicated to wrongfully-convicted Virginia inmates. Although it has no affiliation with other innocence organizations in Virginia or other states, IAI is forging a niche of its own in the larger community of post-conviction programs and organizations.
Most students’ first contact with the program is through a fall seminar on Causes of Wrongful Convictions. However, Beth Sieg, a second-year law student, heard about IAI at law school orientation. Prior to coming to Richmond, she witnessed an exonerated man while working at the Georgia capitol.
“It was hard to imagine the devastation visited on his life because of a mistake,” said Sieg, who is involved with IAI as a research assistant. “I found a judicial system tolerating even a single wrongful conviction unacceptable.”
Gurpreet Dhillon, a third-year law student, knew about the program before starting his law career at Richmond. While watching the O.J. Simpson trial, Dhillon learned that Scheck, a defense attorney on the case, was co-founder of the Innocence Project. The program appealed to him because of its ability to remedy systemic flaws in the justice system.
“The idea that an innocent person could be wrongfully jailed and executed by a state is deeply disturbing,” said Dhillon, who spent the summer after his first year interning with IAI.
To help design the operating infrastructure of IAI, Dhillon researched other programs throughout the country, studying everything from institutional support to specific computer technology used to handle casework. Although he has completed his internship, Dhillon continues to support the program.
Sieg joined the efforts last summer, evaluating cases to determine if they were appropriate for IAI, researching actual innocence issues and corresponding with inmates. She is “on call” this semester and will help Tate prepare for next semester’s clinical program.
The spring semester includes field-based reinvestigation and review of cases. Ultimately, the program’s students will work with local attorneys to appeal convictions and attempt to free wrongly-convicted prisoners in Virginia.
“The experience of working for the institute gives me a new lens through which to see lawyers and the law,” said Sieg, who intends to continue working with IAI after graduation. “Every American deserves a judicial system striving for perfection. We owe it to ourselves to make the process as pure as possible—protecting the innocent protects everyone.”