Causes: Civil Rights, Crime & Law, Inmate Support, Public Interest Law

Mission: The New England Innocence Project (NEIP) provides pro bono assistance to inmates who have claims of actual innocence. The New England Innocence Project’s mission is to assist persons wrongly convicted in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island or Vermont and to advocate for the reform of our criminal justice system. The New England Innocence Project was founded in 2000.NEIP considers cases in which a conviction is final and in which scientific testing or other investigative leads could establish a strong likelihood that the individual is factually innocent. In addition to its work on behalf of individual inmates, NEIP also seeks to raise public awareness of the prevalence, causes, and costs of wrongful convictions, and advocates for legal reforms that will hasten the identification and release of innocent prisoners. It is the New England Innocence Project’s vision that no one in New England will ever go to prison for a crime he or she did not commit.

Results: In June we hosted our annual litigation training, with over 120 attorneys and other criminal justice experts in attendance. This summer we assisted with Vermont's first ever DNA exoneration and were able to walk an innocent man out of prison. Recently, we have moved offices and are now on our own for the first time, and have been devoting time to creating a functional and productive NEIP environment.

Geographic areas served: New England States: Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine