The Actual Innocence Society was recognized by the Student Senate in April 2005. The long-term goal of the AIS is to establish a post-conviction component to the clinical education program at the Syracuse University College of Law. Our inspiration comes from the success of organizations like the Innocence Project at Yeshiva University’s Cardozo School of Law in New York City (and the over thirty similar projects at law schools and within communities across the nation.) These organizations have worked to exonerate hundreds of people who have been wrongfully convicted.
All innocence projects work to free the wrongly convicted. There are several different methods used: DNA evidence, the investigation of the case record, to name two. As of November 2007, 208 people have been exonerated by DNA, according to the Innocence Project. Since 1973, 124 people have been exonerated from death row, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
Objectives of AIS:
- To raise awareness about actual innocence and the fallacies that lead to errors in convictions;
- To develop a comprehensive program that will include faculty and students from other colleges in the Syracuse University community. The College of Law is part of Syracuse University, home to some of the finest colleges in the nation, such as the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and the Maxwell School of Citizenship & Public Affairs. We believe that the investigation of actual innocence and treatment of the problems which lead to such erroneous convictions are a natural fit for the programs in these and other schools at SU;
- To invite speakers who were themselves wrongfully convicted; recently, Jeffrey Deskovic spoke to over 100 people about his wrongful conviction. Click her for more info: http://www.innocenceproject.org/Content/44.php.
- To invite speakers who worked to free people who were wrongfully convicted; and
- To invite speakers who investigate the facts that led to the wrongful convictions of hundreds of actually innocent individuals. Potential speakers shall include people like the journalism students whose work in uncovering the truth stopped an innocent man from being executed in Illinois.
Membership Requirements:
Open to all law students
Officers: Hanna Kine,
President Katie Krusey,
Treasurer Vicki Beighley,
Secretary
Contact:
Hanna Kinne, hkkinne@syr.edu
Please contact us if you would like to become involved, or if you have any suggestions on how
we can meet the above objectives