The I & J Clinic provides students with the unique opportunity to learn about the various causes of wrongful convictions – mistaken eyewitness identification, invalid or improper forensic science evidence, jailhouse informants, false confessions, ineffective assistance of counsel, police and prosecutorial misconduct – while giving them the opportunity to apply this knowledge to the investigation of cases where newly discovered evidence can prove a client’s innocence. The seminar component of the course immerses students in the legal, scientific, cultural and psychological causes of wrongful convictions and the remedies and reforms adopted by states to reduce the potential for wrongful convictions.

The weekly two-hour seminar will cover such topics as: mistaken eyewitness identification; false confessions; junk forensic science; the role of forensic DNA testing; post-conviction remedies for innocence claims; the use of “jailhouse snitches” and cooperating witnesses; police and prosecutorial misconduct; incompetent lawyering; policy and legislative reforms; innocence and the death penalty; re-entry programs and post-conviction remedies. The I & J Clinic will work in close cooperation with The Darryl Hunt Project for Freedom and Justice and The North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission.