From the Idaho Innocence Project

Here's a letter from the Idaho Innocence Project.

The Idaho Innocence Project has just been awarded a U.S. Department of Justice grant for Wrongful Prosecution Review. The program's mission is to provide high quality and efficient research, screening, and representation for potentially wrongfully convicted defendants in post-conviction claims of innocence. Post-conviction innocence claims are likely to include complex challenges to the reliability or accuracy of evidence presented at trial which mainly fall into three categories:
1) eyewitness identification evidence;
2) confession evidence; and
3) forensic evidence.

The Idaho Innocence Project hopes to work with Idaho attorneys to succeed in this mission. This a two-year grant, and it will provide a full time legal assistant dedicated to this work.

We are asking Idaho attorneys do two things:
1. Direct us to clients that you believe have a valid wrongful conviction claim. We are especially interested in cases where there is a potential for new forensic evidence to be discovered or tested.
2. Contact us if you are willing to assist us in casework.

If you are interested, please contact us.
　
--
Rick Visser, J.D.
Idaho Innocence Project
Boise State University
Boise, ID 83725-1515
208.426.4207

mailto:richardvisser@boisestate.edu

Rick: Sign me up. I'd like to help.

Recent events have shown us that we need to be careful about protecting confidential information when working with non-lawyers. An Innocence Project branch in Illinois recently had its records subpoenaed by prosecutors. Hopefully, it'll be able to quash the subpoenas and protect client communications.

See 10/24/09 NYTimes article "Prosecutors Turn Tables on Student Journalists." http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/25/us/25innocence.html?ref=education