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Upholding the Rule of Law: Wrongful Conviction Review Program

Training and Technical Assistance

The Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) awarded funding to the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) in 2015 to conduct national trainings, provide technical assistance and webinars, and expand online resource materials for lawyers who evaluate and litigate post-conviction innocence claims. BJA provided additional funding to NACDL in fiscal year 2017 to conduct a new assessment of the current state of the program to inform BJA's advancement of its wrongful conviction prevention efforts. This assessment will also evaluate the impact of BJA funding on the efficiency of evaluating post-conviction claims of innocence and increasing representation in post-conviction cases.

University of Pennsylvania Law School's Quattrone Center for the Fair Administration of Justice (Quattrone Center)(link is external) was awarded funding by BJA to provide training and technical assistance to seven selected projects in 2018. The Quattrone Center's focus is on conviction integrity and review units (CIUs or Units) and seeks to improve collaboration between CIUs and wrongful conviction entities; develop best practices, guidelines, and policies for existing or newly created Units; and provide wider reaching trainings and information to the field.

Sites

  • First Department Assigned Counsel Corporation
  • University of Michigan
  • The Arizona Justice Project, Inc.
  • University of Cincinnati
  • Loyola Marymount University
  • Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project
  • State of New Jersey, Department of Law & Public Safety
  • Innocence Project of Texas
  • Alaska Innocence Project
  • St. Louis Circuit Attorney's Office
  • Committee for Public Counsel Services (Massachusetts)
  • Wayne County Prosecutor (Detroit, Michigan)
  • Office of the State Attorney of the Fourth Judicial Circuit

Assessments

BJA originally funded NACDL in 2010 to conduct an assessment of BJA's Wrongful Conviction Review (WCR) Program. The goal of the resulting report, "Innocence Invigorated: The Assessment of the FY2010 Wrongful Conviction Review Program," was to provide an in-depth assessment of the recipients of funds from BJA's fiscal year 2010 WCR Program. It examined the impact that BJA grant funds had on improving and expanding access to representation and increasing efficiency in criminal cases involving post-conviction claims of innocence. The performance metrics analyzed include not only case outcomes and the number of innocence claims screened but other factors such as reduction in case backlogs, changes in the number and nature of cases investigated and accepted, legal filings, and the length of the case screening process.

Conflict of Interest Policy Guidance

Date Created: December 9, 2019