Advocacy & Education
Project client William Johnson, home since 2023, speaking at the Innocence
Network conference in 2024 | photo credit: Lyra Photography
More than 3,600 people across the US have been exonerated since tracking began in 1989. Together, they lost more than 33,000 years of their lives to wrongful conviction and incarceration.*
Here in Pennsylvania, we have received more than 8,000 requests for help from people who are incarcerated since we opened our doors in 2009. The Project has helped to bring home more than 30 innocent people to-date. Together, they lost more than 800 years of their lives to wrongful conviction and incarceration.
We work to exonerate people convicted of crimes they did not commit, to provide reentry services for freed and exonerated people when they return home, and to prevent the wrongful prosecution and conviction of innocent people. Our impact litigation and policy advocacy work are critically important to our mission, in part because outcomes for individual wrongly convicted clients can influence access to the courts for other incarcerated people who deserve to have their cases heard. Ultimately, both improved outcomes for freed and exonerated people and improvements to law enforcement practices and criminal legal system policies that benefit people who have been wrongfully convicted can have positive effects for our whole community.
Check back regularly for updates on our advocacy work. We share here when we have opportunities for volunteers and community members to get involved in advocacy efforts that benefit Project clients. Thank you for your support. Together, we are unlocking the truth and freeing the innocent.
* Nationwide statistics are sourced from the National Registry of Exonerations. Learn more about the factors that contribute to wrongful convictions, access Registry reports that reflect the work of Innocence Network organizations and conviction review units across the country, and and read case stories about exonerations by visiting the National Registry of Exonerations.
Current Campaign
Join a movement to support petitions for three wrongfully convicted clients, going before the Board of Pardons on July 10th. Together, Fidel Santiago, Hernan “Spel” Cortes, and John Payne have spent more than 120 years wrongly incarcerated. Sign up to receive their stories in your inbox and to find out how YOU can take action on their behalf.
One of the ways we collaborate with partners if by submitting amicus briefs. Our amicus practice focuses on improving the fairness of pre-trial and post-conviction criminal proceedings to reduce the risk of wrongful convictions and to increase access to the courts for those who are wrongly convicted. Requests for amicus briefs can be submitted by email to info@PAinnocence.org. Please attach the decision being appealed and any relevant briefs, and include “Amicus Request” in the subject line of your request. The Project’s Policy and Litigation Committee makes all decisions regarding amicus briefs. We consider many factors in making our decision about whether to file a brief, including in which court the case is pending, the particular issues being litigated, the timeline for filing the brief, and the potential impact of the brief. You can see recent sample amicus briefs we have submitted below.
Previous Amicus Briefs
The Potential Misue of Second-Degree Murder by Jurors*
Prosecutorial Concessions Role in the Legal System*
Commonwealth v. Rasheed Malcolm
Accusatory Interrogation Techniques and the Risk of False Confessions*