The Exoneration Initiative

The Exoneration Initiative (EXI) is a pioneering organization that provides free legal assistance to wrongfully convicted persons in New York. We primarily focus on the most challenging cases, those that lack DNA evidence. Our mission is simple: To exonerate the actually innocent. Hundreds of DNA exonerations in the United States over the last 20 years have raised serious concerns about the criminal justice system's failure to protect the innocent from wrongful conviction. But the DNA exonerations are only the tip of the iceberg, representing a mere fraction of the wrongful convictions. However without DNA evidence, very few lawyers and organizations have the expertise and the resources to effectively handle these extremely difficult non-DNA cases. EXI was founded to take on this important work. Expanding on the efforts of DNA-based organizations such as the Innocence Project, EXI is taking the Innocence Movement to the next level. When selecting our cases we apply the lessons learned from the DNA exonerations to non-DNA cases, focusing on the problems proven to cause wrongful conviction. We then approach prosecutors and Courts urging them to take a second look at convictions and undo injustices. The Initiative comes at a time when Courts are becoming receptive to non-DNA cases. Confronted with the reality that intolerable numbers of innocent people are languishing in jail, Courts are now considering the merits of innocence claims, looking beyond overly formalistic barriers which have prevented review for decades. EXI's staff of highly experienced lawyers and our alliances with law schools and premier New York law firms committed to pro bono innocence work, enable us to pool the legal talent and resources needed to sustain complex litigation and give the forgotten, non-DNA population the best chance of success for exoneration.