Sponsored Events
"At the Death House Door"
The screening of the
documentary "At the
Death House Door"
and the discussion session
with guest speakers the
Rev. Carroll Pickett and
investigative journalist
Maurice Possley spotlighted
the heartwrenching subject
of capital punishment in
relation to those who are
wrongfully accused. More>
Sister Helen Prejean
Brandeis Day of Innocence
with Sister Helen Prejean,
was touted as a "resounding success!" More>
In Related News
Oregon case puts reliability of science itself on trial: "Bullet lead analysis" viewed as discredited evidence
Inside the Oregon State Penitentiary Philip Scott Cannon spends every waking moment poring over legal documents as if his life depends on it. Because it does.
While the 42-year-old inmate may appear to be just another lifer shuffling through the system, he is, in fact, on the front lines of a quiet revolution overtaking the nation's criminal justice system. The "bullet lead analysis" that was the prosecution's primary tool in an otherwise circumstantial case against Cannon has since been discarded as bad science. The FBI no longer uses it. More>
2006-2007 Innocence Project student researchers with Brandeis President Reinharz, Institute Director Florence Graves, and former Innocence Project Director Pamela Cytrynbaum
Justice Brandeis
Innocence Project
The Justice Brandeis Innocence Project addresses an ethical crisis in the United States: the incarceration of thousands of innocent people. For most, class and race make them more vulnerable to arrest and conviction and least able to afford effective legal representation.
We use investigative reporting techniques to probe cases in which inmates may have been wrongfully convicted, in large part because of race and class—and which there is no DNA evidence to test. Most innocence projects pursue cases with DNA. But experts say that more than 80 percent of wrongful convictions have no available DNA evidence.
We use time- and resource-intensive techniques to dig into the facts of such cases, including examining court documents and police records; reconstructing the crime scene and timeline; interviewing or re-interviewing witnesses; and then reporting on our findings for publication or broadcast. We hire Brandeis students to assist us. Any student interested in social justice, journalism, or law can apply by completing and submitting the Schuster Institute Application Form.
Some shocking research conclusions:
- Ten percent of America’s two million prisoners may have been wrongfully convicted, suggesting that 200,000 innocent people may be in jail. (1996 National Institute of Justice report)
- Over the past fifteen years, more than 28,500 non-death row inmates would have been exonerated “if we reviewed prison sentences with the same level of care we devote to death sentences.” (“Exonerations In The United States 1989 Through 2003,” University of Michigan Prof. Samuel Gross, 2004.)
The Institute is investigating the case of a Massachusetts man serving life in prison for a homicide he says he did not commit. The case was referred to the Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism by the New England Innocence Project.
The Justice Brandeis Innocence Project has benefited from the expertise of Dick Lehr, Visiting Journalist-in-Residence in 2007 and Pamela Cytrynbaum, who acted as assistant director for the Institute from 2005-2007.
The work of the Institute's journalists and students will shine a greatly needed spotlight on the increasing inequities between the powerful and the powerless, finding and exposing wrongdoing where it exists in the criminal justice system.