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Innocence Project of the National Capitol Region (IPNCR)
was incorporated as a non-profit organization in the District
of Columbia in May 2000. Our mission is to assist those
with a credible claim of factual innocence through DNA
testing and traditional investigation and litigation. This
mission is carried out by volunteer dedicated lawyers,
law school faculty, and law students from the nine area
law schools, and other volunteers. We currently cover the
jurisdictions of the District of Columbia, Maryland, and
Virginia, and we are hoping to add West Virginia soon.
Based in part on a 1996 National
Institute of Justice Report, reasonably credible estimates
are that up to 10 percent of our national prison population
may be factually innocent of the crimes of which were convicted.
In other words, there may be close to 200,000 innocent
people currently serving time in American prisons. This
is a national problem.
IPNCR was the brain child of Richard Gilbert, Page Kennedy,
and Blair Brown. It was co-founded in April 2000 by Richard
Gilbert, Blair Brown, Page Kennedy, Van Caldwell, Paul Enzinna,
and Kristen Hughes. We are housed at the American University
s Washinton College of Law. Our first training program for
local area law students was held on 23 September at the Georgetown
University School of Law. We received our first series of
cases, courtesy of the Innocence Project at Cardoza Law School,
in September.
IPNCR is a part of the innocence project network dedicated
to freeing the wrongfully convicted.
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