Innocence Project | Barry Scheck & Kevin Richardson | Talks at Google
205Co-Founder Barry Scheck speaks about The Innocence Project with Kevin Richardson, one of the men wrongly convicted in the Central Park Five case.
The Innocence Project, which is currently celebrating its 25th anniversary, was founded by acclaimed lawyers Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld who realized that the emerging DNA evidence that was being used to identify the perpetrators of crimes could also be used to exonerate those who had been wrongly convicted. The organization began as a legal clinic at Cardozo Law School and became an independent nonprofit (still affiliated with Cardozo) in 2004. Since its founding, 351 people have been exonerated by DNA evidence of crimes for which they didn’t commit. The Innocence Project has helped in more than half of these cases.
The Innocence Project understood early on that each wrongful conviction was a learning opportunity, exposing flaws in the system that contributed to these terrible injustices. It advocates for science- and research-based reforms to prevent wrongful convictions. The organization has worked to pass more than a hundred state laws designed to reveal and protect against wrongful convictions, including laws that protect against eye witness misidentifications and false confessions, leading contributors to wrongful convictions.
Co-Founder Barry Scheck will talk about his groundbreaking work to disrupt the status quo of the criminal justice system and introduce you to a person helped by the Innocence Project who will share his story of perseverance on the long road to justice.