[Hamp-law] Innocence Project

[Flavio Risech]

Date: Tue, 23 Oct 2001 14:23:37 -0400
Status:

Colleagues: I am writing to call your attention to a lecture by Peter
Neufeld on Wednesday, November 14th at 430 in the Red Room in Converse Hall
at Amherst College. Peter, along with Barry Scheck, is co-founder of the
Innocence Project.

The title of Peter's talk is "Actual Innocence - The Emerging Civil Rights
Movement to Reform Criminal Justice" In this talk Peter will describe the
work of the Innocence Project, and he will argue that "not long ago, to
claim that an innocent person had been imprisoned was audacious, even risky,
a proposition that was close to unprovable.  But as of today, DNA testing
has provided stone-cold proof that ninety-three people were sent to prison
and death row for crimes they did not commit.  The DNA exonerations have
exposed a system of law that has been far too complacent about its fairness
and accuracy.  What matters most is not how these people got out of jail but
how they got into it.  My talk will discuss the causes of unjust convictions
and sensible, albeit urgent reforms to make them less likely in the future."

I hope that you will be able to attend and that you will call this event to
the attention of your students.


Austin Sarat
Law, Jurisprudence & Social Thought
Political Science
Amherst College
Amherst, MA. 01002
413-542-2308 (phone)
413-542-2264 (fax)