In 2005 the Texas Legislature directed the Texas Indigent Defense Commission to contract with the four public law schools in Texas to operate innocence projects. These projects provide investigative and legal services to identify and rectify wrongful convictions of Texas inmates in non-death penalty cases. The projects also have a second, pedagogical mission: to provide Texas law students with opportunities to gain practical experience that enhances their legal education and skills while serving the public interest and earning law school credit. In addition to supporting the innocence projects, Texas has undertaken other efforts to respond to wrongful convictions and improve the criminal justice system. These include:
- • The Texas Criminal Justice Integrity Unit
- • The Timothy Cole Advisory Panel on Wrongful Convictions
- • The Texas Forensic Science Commission
- • Eyewitness Identification Procedures Model Policy
Read more here about the history and structure of the TIDC Innocence Program
Participating Innocence Projects
- • The Texas Center for Actual Innocence at the University of Texas School Of Law
- • The University of Houston Law Center Innocence Project (formally Texas Innocence Network)
- • The Thurgood Marshall School of Law Innocence Project at Texas Southern University
- • The Innocence Project of Texas, which works with the Texas Tech University School of Law and several other universities.
In addition to these programs, several other innocence projects are operating in Texas. Information on other innocence projects can be found on the website of the Innocence Network, a national organization of innocence projects, at www.innocencenetwork.org.
Shared Case Database
In 2007 the Criminal Justice Division of the Office of the Governor provided a grant to create a shared case database for the projects to use to facilitate collaboration and reduce the risk of duplicative work at the various projects. The database is administered by the Public Policy Research Institute at Texas A&M University (PPRI), and provides access to innocence project caseload statistics and other workload measures. Link to PPRI for Caseload Statistics
The Need the Program Addresses
Program Impact: Exonerations of Texas Innocence Project Clients
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Updated: 18-Jul-2012
