We’re working to improve the system.
We are committed to holding our justice system accountable. We seek to identify and correct problems that perpetuate wrongful convictions, such as mistaken eyewitness identifications, coercive interrogations that lead to false confessions, and scientifically unsupported techniques such as bite mark evidence and other “junk science.”
Together with our freed and exonerated clients, we’ve successfully advocated for policies and practices to identify, prevent, and rectify wrongful convictions in Washington State, including policies to:
+ Mandate recording of custodial interrogations
+ Improve eyewitness identification procedures
+ Mandate preservation of crime scene evidence
+ Promote access to post-conviction DNA testing
+ Scrutinize jailhouse informants and other incentivized witnesses
+ Compensate those who are actually innocent for every year lost in prison through Washington’s Wrongly Convicted Persons Act
”Education is critical to ending wrongful convictions.
We serve as a nonpartisan resource for judges, attorneys, the media, and the general public, sharing information about how wrongful convictions have happened and how we have secured freedom for our clients. Our decades of research and partnership with other Innocence Network organizations around the world give us access and insight into the problems within our justice system, and how to fix them.
Wrongful convictions don’t exist in a vacuum. They are part of an interconnected web of injustices within our court and prison systems. Issues such as over-policing in Communities of Color, for-profit prisons, children being tried as adults, and so many more, all connect to wrongful convictions. What’s more, while these systemic injustices are unjust for innocent people, they are also unjust for all people and must be rectified in the pursuit of justice. Washington Innocence Project is actively seeking partnerships with activists and organizations working on these wide-ranging issues.
© 2024 Washington Innocence Project.
