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Articles » DNA Profiling
The California Innocence Project and DNA
Sasha Soon
DNA can be used to help solve crimes, convict a criminal, acquit a suspect and be used to link a suspect to any given place. In the California Western School of Law, San Diego, students are heading up The California Innocence Project, providing pro bono legal assistance to inmates who are challenging their convictions upon showing innocence through DNA or other new evidence.
Many inmates are turning to the Innocence Project for help after losing their freedom. An Innocence Network based in law schools across the country is the ultimate goal for some students. California Western School of Law's Institute for Criminal Defense Advocacy, (ICDA), is overseeing the California Innocence Project.
Recent studies have shown that among the nation's 1.3 million people in federal state penitentiaries, there are those who have been convicted in spite of innocence. Many innocent prisoners have been convicted based upon mistaken eyewitnesses, false confessions, faulty forensics, police misconduct and ineffective assistance of counsel. With the help of the new DNA studies, the innocent may be justly served.
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"The California Innocence Project."
AOL News 04-27-00
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