The Attack at the Silk Plant Forest

NAVIGATION

More on the Duke Innocence Project

By Lee Rawles

JOURNALNOW REPORTER

WINSTON-SALEM

The organization assisting Kalvin Michael Smith, the North Carolina Center on Actual Innocence, is a satellite of a larger organization called the National Innocence Project.

The National Innocence Project was founded in 1992, after the O.J. Simpson trial, by Barry Scheck and Peter J. Neufeld. Scheck was a lawyer for the defense in that trial, and brought up a tainted-DNA-evidence theory.

Drawing on the resources of law schools, journalism schools and public defenders' offices, the National Innocence Project now has 31 chapters across the country. On its board of directors are some of the most well-known jurists in the United States.

"[The National Innocence Project] was set up as and remains a non-profit legal clinic," the organization's website reads. "This Project only handles cases where post-conviction DNA testing of evidence can yield conclusive proof of innocence. As a clinic, students handle the case work while supervised by a team of attorneys and clinic staff."

One of its members, Northwestern University's Center on Wrongful Convictions, played an integral role in the courts of the state of Illinois. The center has been responsible for the exoneration of 13 death row inmates. Most of these exonerations hinged on DNA evidence that was unavailable at the time of prisoners' convictions.

After these 13 exonerations, the governor of Illinois declared a moratorium on the death penalty and the state convened a death penalty commission. Eventually, the governor issued mass clemency to all inmates under the death penalty, emptying Death Row and commuting their sentences to life in prison without parole.

The N.C. Center on Actual Innocence operates on the same premise. It has specific criteria that must be met before it will take on a case.

The person requesting assistance must have been convicted of a felony that took place in North Carolina.
The person must be in a prison in North Carolina.
The person asserts actual innocence, that is, he or she did not commit the crime. It does not accept cases based on legal or procedural error.
The person has at least 36 months remaining to be served for the offense or offenses."

"The Center has approximately 170 cases on its active case list at various stages of review or investigation," Marion Place, the project coordinator, said in an email. "Since June 2000, we have processed approximately 2,500 requests from inmates. Some are rejected out of hand, others go on to be reviewed by Innocence Project volunteers. A very small percentage is actively investigated by volunteers with faculty supervision."

In order to be considered, the inmate must fill out a detailed questionnaire, which is available on the web here.

In January 2003, Smith filled out the N.C. Center's questionnaire. Jim Coleman, the faculty advisor for the Duke University Innocence Project, agreed to take on Smith's case.

Jim Coleman Jr., Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, Duke University's College of Law

Also interviewed in the article:

Steve Drizin, Senior Staff Attorney for the Center on Wrongful Convictions

Richard Leo, Professor of criminology, UC-Irvine: Department of Criminology, Law and Society - School of Social Ecology

-- Drizin and Leo conducted a study called "The Problem of Police-Induced False Confessions in the Post DNA World."

Associated Links

The North Carolina Center on Actual Innocence
Affiliated with:

Duke University
Duke University School of Law
University of North Carolina School of Law
Campbell University Wiggins School of Law
North Carolina Central University School of Law
The UNC-Chapel Hill School of Journalism and Mass Communication

National Innocence Project

Northwestern University's Center on Wrongful Conviction

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