Expository Essay

INNOCENCE PROJECT Jessica Hein Axia College of University Next I will be showing everyone the statistics of how many people have been wrongfully convicted of crimes. “Overall in the United States there have been 227 post-conviction from DNA exonerations. The year 1989 this was when the first DNA exoneration took place. The exonerations were won in 33 states in the year 2000. The total amount of exonerations has been 162. In the total amount of 227 exonerations only 17 people were exonerated through DNA that was on death row. The normal amount of time exonerates serve is 12 years. The total amount of time served is just about 2,825. The age of exonerates is usually 26 years old at the time of their unfair convictions.”(Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project, 2006) Another topic I discuss about is the mission of the program. “In the year 1992 the Innocence Project was established by Barry C. Scheck and Peter J. Neufeld at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law to help prisoners who could be established as blameless throughout DNA testing.” (Innocence Project, 2006)The main idea for the Innocence Project is to help the wrongfully accused people be able to prove their innocence. The Innocence program also wants to make the judicial system responsible for their wrong incarceration. The Innocence Project is also trying to pass bills to help out the wrongfully accused people return into society without having any ridicule. Basically the program is trying to fix the judicial system to prevent further unfairness to innocents. The next topic is about how the organization works on its projects. One way to fix the system for misidentification of the suspect is to make sure the police officer who is either in the photo or live lineup not be aware of whom the suspect is. An additional way to fix the system would be to make sure the entire custodial interrogation is being recorded. Here is one more example of trying to fix the system: the Innocence Project is trying to make sure all

References: Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project. (2006). Retrieved January 14, 2009, from Charlena Fuqua. (2007). The History and Future of the Death Penalty, paragraph 3. Retrieved January 14,2009, from http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/442918/the_history_and_future_of_the_death.html?cat=17 Appendix G Peer Review* Checklist