When Barry C. Scheck and Peter J. Neufeld founded the Innocence Project as a clinic at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University in 1992, the issue of actual innocence had not yet emerged on a substantial scale. Only five people had ever been exonerated through DNA testing, and no state had DNA access laws for prisoners with claims of innocence.
But after two decades of work by the Innocence Project, 311 people in the United States have been exonerated by DNA testing, including 18 who served time on death row. These inmates served an average of 13 years in prison before exoneration and release. All 50 states now have a DNA access law, and more than 90 new state and federal laws have been established to prevent and address wrongful convictions.
