Title
Honoring the tenth anniversary of the Pennsylvania Innocence Project, a leading criminal justice reform organization dedicated to securing freedom for the unjustly imprisoned, preventing wrongful convictions and aiding exonerees' transition to restoration.
Body
WHEREAS, The United States, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and the City of Philadelphia are commissioned to protect due process and to prevent the unjust deprivation of liberty. Nonetheless, far too many people suffer wrongs in our criminal justice system; and
WHEREAS, Since 1989, more than 2,500 individuals have been exonerated from wrongful convictions across the nation. Collectively, these individuals have lost over 21,000 years of their lives serving sentences due to improper verdicts; and
WHEREAS, As a response to the proliferation of wrongful convictions, in 2008, David Richman and David Rudovsky lead a coalition of attorneys to establish the Pennsylvania Innocence Project (the PA Innocence Project or the Project). The Project began operation in April 2009 at Temple University Beasley School of Law with the ardent support of then Dean JoAnne Epps. The organization's partnerships now include all of the law schools in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania; and
WHEREAS, In 2016, PA Innocence Project opened an office in Pittsburgh, PA housed by Duquesne University School of Law and with support from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. The opening of the Pittsburgh office made the Project the first exoneration organization to host multiple locations in the same state; and
WHEREAS, The Project's legacy of giving hope and affirming the experience of those harmed by barriers in our legal system is actualized by (1) securing the exoneration, release from imprisonment, and restoration to society of persons who are innocent and have been wrongly convicted; (2) providing clinical training and experience to students in the fields of law, journalism, criminal justice, and forensic science; (3...
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