Work
In the history of the United States there have been 292 post-conviction exonerations due to DNA testing According to the Innocence Project these statistics were found on those exonerated:
- The average sentence served thirteen years
- 70 percent exonerated are a part of minority groups
- 40 percent of these DNA cases were able to find the actual person who committed the crime.
- About 50 percent of those exonerated through DNA testing have been financially compensated for their time in prison. The federal government, 27 states, and Washington D.C. have passed laws providing some level of financial compensation to wrongfully convicted people
- The Innocence Project has had to close 22 percent of its cases because DNA evidence was missing or had been destroyed
There have been exoneration in Washington D.C and 35 states. There are innocence projects in the majority of the 50 states.
New York City is where the Innocence Project originated, but it accepts cases from any part of the United States. The majority of clients that are helped are those who are of low socio-economic status and have used all possible legal options for justice. Before investigating a case, clients undergo a screening process in order to figure out whether or not DNA testing will lead to a wrongful conviction. Many clients are hoping that DNA evidence will prove their innocence in their cases. With the emergence of DNA testing, those who have been wrongly convicted of a crime have been able to challenge their cases. The Innocence Project also works with the local, state and federal levels of law enforcement and legislators along with other programs to prevent further wrongful convictions.
About 3,000 prisoners write to the Innocence Project annually, and at any given time the Innocence Project is evaluating 6,000 to 8,000 potential cases.
Read more about this topic: Innocence Project
Famous quotes containing the word work:
“It is impossible to think of a man of any actual force and originality, universally recognized as having those qualities, who spent his whole life appraising and describing the work of other men.”
—H.L. (Henry Lewis)
“Human life itself may be almost pure chaos, but the work of the artist—the only thing he’s good for—is to take these handfuls of confusion and disparate things, things that seem to be irreconcilable, and put them together in a frame to give them some kind of shape and meaning. Even if it’s only his view of a meaning. That’s what he’s for—to give his view of life.”
—Katherine Anne Porter (1890–1980)
“Only an idiot would ask Wolfie to work on that stuff—twelve foot snakes, magic flutes.”
—Peter Shaffer (b. 1926)