Innocence/Wrongful Convictions Clinic

Since the first DNA exoneration in 1989, there have been more than 270 post-conviction exonerations in the United States based on DNA analysis. This powerful scientific tool has exposed fundamental flaws in the criminal justice system and has opened a dialogue for meaningful reform in diverse areas, such as mistaken eyewitness identification, false confessions, faulty forensic evidence, police and prosecutorial misconduct, inadequate defense funding, and ineffective assistance of defense counsel. There are, moreover, countless other cases and convictions without DNA or other forensic evidence that could lead to innocence-based exonerations or new trials. The Innocence and Wrongful Convictions Clinic joins organizations throughout the United States in seeking to free or obtain new trials for wrongfully convicted individuals and in raising public and political awareness of the prevalence and causes of wrongful convictions.

The Clinic puts into practice the lectures and training of the seminar component of the program that is taught by Professor Dwight Aarons. The Clinic takes on direct representation of wrongfully convicted -- including potentially innocent -- defendants in Tennessee and provides pro bono legal and investigative assistance. Students form teams to investigate inmates’ claims, and they commit to a full year of working on one or more Clinic cases. Students will work on all aspects of the cases, including investigation, preparing post-conviction motions, conducting hearings and arguing motions, and filing appeals. Students work in teams of two or three and participate in “case rounds” where the facts and investigative strategy of each case are analyzed by the full group. Students work under the supervision of adjunct professors Stephen Ross Johnson, Gianna Maio, Anne Passino, and Ann C. Short, who are practicing local attorneys.

photo of Professor Dwight Aarons

Professor Dwight Aarons