Northern California Innocence Project

The NCIP, a part of the National Innocence Network, works within an educational framework to exonerate indigent California prisoners who have been wrongly convicted. Operating as a law school clinical program at Santa Clara University, NCIP provides legal representation to wrongfully convicted prisoners. Supervised by experienced legal and forensic staff, NCIP law students evaluate case histories--including transcripts, medical reports, and appellate briefs--as well as work with prisoners, crime and evidence labs, law enforcement, defense attorneys, and prosecutors, to help prove claims of innocence. NCIP is dedicated to raising public awareness about the prevalence and causes of wrongful conviction as well as promoting substantive legal reforms to prevent future wrongful convictions. False confessions, mistaken eyewitness identification, substandard forensic work, incompetent legal representation, and police misconduct are just some of the problems endemic in our criminal justice system. In working with state and local officials to reform the criminal justice system, and in promoting greater community awareness about the causes and frequency of wrongful convictions, NCIP has and will continue making inroads in preventing wrongful convictions.