The Innocence Project
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Headquarters Location: New York, NY
Founded: 1992
Mission: The Innocence Project was founded in 1992 by Barry C. Scheck and Peter J. Neufeld at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University to assist prisoners who could be proven innocent through DNA testing. To date, 273 people in the United States have been exonerated by DNA testing, including 17 who served time on death row. These people served an average of 13 years in prison before exoneration and release. The Innocence Project’s full-time staff attorneys and Cardozo clinic students provide direct representation or critical assistance in most of these cases. The Innocence Project’s groundbreaking use of DNA technology to free innocent people has provided irrefutable proof that wrongful convictions are not isolated or rare events but instead arise from systemic defects. Now an independent nonprofit organization closely affiliated with Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University, the Innocence Project’s mission is nothing less than to free the staggering numbers of innocent people who remain incarcerated and to bring substantive reform to the system responsible for their unjust imprisonment.
Tags:
legal representation, dna technology, policy reform, litigation, prisoner re-entry, public education, pre and post-release support
Summary
Stories
Expert Reviews
Leadership
From the Nonprofit
Leadership
Madeline deLone.
Maddy deLone became the Executive Director of the Innocence Project in March, 2004. Before joining the Innocence Project, Ms. deLone was an attorney with the Prisoners' Rights Project of the Legal Aid Society, a Skadden Fellow and staff attorney with Children's Rights, Inc., and a law clerk to the Honorable Robert W. Sweet. Prior to becoming a lawyer, she held…
See full bio.
Financial Data
Overhead Ratio:
26.61%
Total Revenue:
$6,450,321
From the Nonprofit
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Contact Info
Website:
E-Mail:
info AT innocenceproject.org
Phone:
212-364-5340
Facebook:
Address:
40 Worth St., Suite 701
New York, NY 10013, USA
Twitter:
Story:
Ralph Armstrong served more than 28 years in Wisconsin prisons for murder before a judge overturned his conviction in 2009 based on evidence that a prosecutor had deliberately withheld evidence of his innocence more than a decade earlier. The Innocence Project became involved in Armstrong's case in 1993, working with Wisconsin attorneys Jerome Buting and Keith Belzer. More advanced DNA testing was conducted in 2001, excluding Armstrong and the victim's boyfriend as the source of the head hairs on the bathrobe belt, and finding that the semen stain used against Armstrong at trial was connected to the victim's boyfriend. Based on these results, the Wisconsin Supreme Court overturned his conviction in 2005, granting him a new trial.
While a new trial was pending, a woman testified at a hearing that she had called Dane County Assistant District Attorney John Norsetter in 1995 to report that Armstrong's brother, Steve, confessed that he, not Ralph, was guilty of the crime, and that he feared Ralph would be exonerated by DNA and come after him if he found out Steve was the real guilty party. The woman said she described Steve's gruesomely detailed confession to Norsetter, who did not report this evidence to defense attorneys and did not pursue the lead. Steve Armstrong had disappeared shortly after the crime and never again contacted his brother Ralph. Steve died in 2005.
Expert Reviews of The Innocence Project
Evidence of Impact Summary:
The Innocence Project, Inc. is cited by experts as one of the leading forces in the legal representation of wrongfully convicted individuals. The Innocence Project, Inc. has also employed effective advocacy programs to spread awareness about the fallibility of the criminal justice.See expert comments.
Organization Strengths Summary:
The Innocence Project, Inc. has many strengths. These include their talented staff and leadership, their success in litigation and reform, and the high degree of credibility that they have been able to establish in the sector.See expert comments.
Areas for Improvement Summary:
According to experts, the Innocence Project can improve by expanding its work past DNA cases, by reducing the amount of bureaucracy within the agency, and increasing cohesion and communication among the different members of the organization.See expert comments.
Expert Comments: Evidence of Impact
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Raises Public Awareness |
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By helping to free innocent prisoners and some death row inmates, the Innocence Project has had an enormous impact on the public perception of the fallibility of the criminal justice system. Its research has also contributed to recommendations for reform. | ||
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The Innocence Project has focused national attention on issues of innocence and the death penalty and has helped to shift public opinion away from support of capital punishment. | ||
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The Innocence Project's work is the reason that has driven down people's discomfort with the death penalty over the past few years. | ||
Influential Policy Recommendations |
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Great publicity, and has changed the terms of the debate about both wrongful convictions and the death penalty. Something of a personality cult around Barry Scheck sometimes gets in the way of the organizations mission. Great organizational skills, and have transformed much of the debate on capital punishment. | ||
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On the legal side, EJI has been effective in overturning cases. On the policy side, EJI has been effective in identifying core issues, doing quality research around those issues, and crafting and advancing polices based on that research. | ||
Great Publicity |
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Great publicity, and has changed the terms of the debate about both wrongful convictions and the death penalty. Something of a personality cult around Barry Scheck sometimes gets in the way of the organizations mission,. Great organizational skills, and have transformed much of the debate on capital punishment. Something of a personality cult around Barry Scheck is a disadvantage. | ||
Strong National Leader in Legal Representation and Advocacy |
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The Innocence Project has been behind the release from prison of scores of innocent people. Their spotlight on the problems in the criminal justice system that can lead to a wrongful conviction is impossible to ignore and therefore raises consciousness in every case about the possibility that a mistake will lead to a great injustice. | ||
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The Innocence Project has been leading the way to exonerating prisoners and making the public and opinion leaders aware of the fallibility of the criminal justice system. | ||
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The Innocence Project is responsible for the DNA exonerations of 240 men and women in the U.S., and it continues to support innocence work with the help of law school and non-profit clinics throughout the U.S. In addition, the Innocence Project is influencing criminal justice reforms based on its experience which identifies systemic flaws and risk factors that contribute to wrongful convictions. | ||
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The Innocence Project, Inc. is a top nonprofit based on the sheer number of innocent people that it has saved from execution and prison and the widespread national and international impact the organization has had on the death penalty debate, on policy reform to prevent wrongful convictions and on the innocence movement overall. | ||
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Their legal representation has freed hundreds of innocent people from prison, while their policy and communications work has shed light on the mistakes made by the criminal justice system. | ||
Exoneration of Innocent Prisoners |
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The Innocence Project has done a great job of walking innocent people out of prison. | ||
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The Innocence Project has freed hundreds of individuals through the use of DNA. | ||
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This organization has radically impacted the criminal justice system. Because of their pioneering work in wrongful conviction, lives and laws have been changed for the better. | ||
Successful Reform |
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Their work has been instrumental in building strong momentum to abolish the death penalty nationally. They have also been key in the successful efforts in 3 states in the past several years. | ||
Expert Comments: Organization Strengths
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High Credibility |
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The Innocent Project's strengths include excellent leadership and staff, courageous representation in difficult cases, and hard working attorneys willing to go the extra mile for their clients. They also have achieved a high degree of credibility because of the thoroughness of their work. | ||
Effective Leadership and Staff |
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Their staff is extremely helpful. Their website is a terrific resource. | ||
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The Innocent Project has strong leadership, staff, and messaging. | ||
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Influential policy recommendations. | ||
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The IP has great and nearly legendary leadership in Barry Scheck. Its staff is not as well known but consists of top-notch talents. The staff is large enough that the IP is able to focus broadly both in terms of geography, types of wrongful convictions, and strategies for reducing wrongful convictions. | ||
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They make great use of voluntary lawyers. | ||
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They have a strong and collaborative staff and leadership. | ||
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The leadership is a huge strength. Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld have a very high level of expertise on innocence litigation, and they are dedicated professionals. Nina Morrison also provides strong day-to-day leadership. The Innocence Project has strong financial support, based in part to private donations, foundation support, and its relationship with Cardozo School of Law. | ||
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This group has well-respected leadership and very knowledgeable and accessible staff. | ||
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This is a very well-funded non-profit with a very large staff. The staff is very generous with their time and their expertise. | ||
Empowerment of Released Prisoners |
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Individuals who are released from prison through the Innocence Project become great advocates for criminal justice reform. | ||
Strong Expertise in Litigation and Reform |
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Their strengths include policy reform, public education, and litigation expertise. Some of the best and brightest attorneys work at the Innocence Project, Inc. | ||
Great Marketing |
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They are very well branded and marketed. Everyone has heard of them, and their very name communicates a message about injustice and the need to change the system. They also have a wonderful, passionate, committed staff. | ||
Innovative Strategies |
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The Innocence Project uses strong leadership and strategic thinking and is willing to embrace new paradigms and a holistic analysis in their work. | ||
Expert Comments: Areas for Improvement
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More Public Outreach |
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They should be more public about the broad implications of their work. | ||
Expand Leadership |
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Something of a personality cult around Barry Scheck is a disadvantage. | ||
Expand Past DNA Cases |
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Though their focus is probably their strength and key to effectiveness, they may need to move beyond just DNA cases. | ||
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The national innocence project is limited to DNA exonerations, which is a shame. Also, they are not as collaborative as they could be. | ||
Something of a personality cult around Barry Scheck is a disadvantage. |
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Increase Policy & Legislative Influence |
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The IP could take its game to the next level by having more influence in policy and legislative arenas, where changes to police practices could reduce the number of people wrongfully convicted in the first instance. | ||
More Internal Consistency and Organization |
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The Innocence Project (IP) licenses other organizations to use the name "Innocence Project," so there is a loosely-organized network of non-profits doing IP work. Some do good work, some not so good. There is a risk of brand-dilution. Some quality control or other system of training and support should accompany the licensing of new IP's. | ||
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As with any large nonprofit, the founding "public face" of the organization is not always in sync with the organization itself. Their policy advocacy work is carried out by wonderful people, but they have an insider approach and don't necessarily build movements to empower citizens to be involved in this change. | ||
Avoid Bureaucracy |
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This non-profit is so large now that they are becoming a bit of a bureaucracy which can, at time, impact the work of the staff. They have a reputation of being heavy-handed with local court officials and politicians. | ||
Leadership
Madeline deLone
Executive Director
Executive Director
From the Nonprofit
The nonprofit has not added any comments yet. If you are a representative of this nonprofit and would like to leave a comment, please email us at
feedback@myphilanthropedia.org
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