On Monday, March 13th Yahoo! Global News Anchor Katie Couric kicks off the Innocence Project’s 25th anniversary with an in-depth conversation about wrongful convictions and advocacy for justice. Hear first-hand from exonerees, a persevering mother, a Pulitzer-prize winning journalist and a lawyer who has freed more than 30 clients about their experiences fighting the system and advocating for the innocent. This event has reached capacity but you can still watch it live on our Facebook page on Monday, March 13 at 7:00 p.m. ET.
Panelists include:
Derrick Hamilton – A jailhouse lawyer who won his freedom after being wrongly convicted of murder and helped to expose the wide-spread corruption of Brooklyn detective Louis Scarcella.
Kirk Bloodsworth – The first person exonerated by DNA evidence who served time on death row and the inspiration for the Kirk Bloodsworth Post-Conviction Testing Programs which provides federal funds for DNA testing.
Joan Anderson – Mother of exoneree Marvin Anderson who rallied, organized and searched for the truth for 20 years to overturn the wrongful conviction of her son.
Jim Dwyer – Pulitzer-prize winning New York Times columnist whose reporting triggered the exonerations of Everton Wagstaff and Reginald Connor and greater awareness of the causes of wrongful convictions.
Vanessa Potkin – The Innocence Project’s first staff attorney who now serves as the Director of Post-Conviction Litigation, leading the team of attorneys who have helped to exonerate nearly 200 people through DNA evidence over the organization’s 25 year history.
Background:
Since the Innocence Project’s founding in 1992, 349 people have been exonerated by DNA testing in the United States, including 36 who pleaded guilty to crimes they did not commit and 20 who served time on death row. The Innocence Project, founded at and still affiliated with the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, provided direct representation or critical assistance in 182 of those cases and helped to pass more than 100 state and federal laws to prevent and address wrongful convictions, including laws in every state which provide some level of access to post-conviction DNA testing. More broadly, the Innocence Project’s use of DNA technology to uncover wrongful convictions has helped to transform the nation’s approach to criminal justice by revealing the systematic defects that plague the system.