It’s been nearly 40 years since Rob Warden began investigating wrongful convictions, and much has changed. For one thing, there now is a national innocence movement with about 60 groups across the country working to exonerate prisoners. Northwestern University School of Law’s Center on Wrongful Convictions—which Warden co-founded in 1999—was among the first wave and has grown into one of the largest organization that accepts both DNA- and non-DNA-related cases. (Perhaps the best-known program, the Innocence Project at the Yeshiva University Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, was founded in 1992.)
Warden has helped exonerate nearly 60 people, and Illinois’ abolition of the death penalty largely was a response to a growing number of wrongful conviction cases identified in the state.
