Q. What are the remedies for systemic problems? Are they being adopted?

A. For each cause of wrongful conviction, there are straightforward, proven remedies that make the system more accurate: police can change how they administer lineups to reduce errors; forensic science standards and oversight can increase the reliability of evidence; recording interrogations can reduce false confessions.

The Innocence Project has helped persuade hundreds of local jurisdictions to adopt reforms and also works with local advocates to advance legislation in virtually every state. When the Innocence Project was founded in 1992, not a single state had a law granting post-conviction DNA access to prisoners; now, nearly every state has one. Dozens of measures have also been passed to address evidence preservation, exoneree compensation, eyewitness identification procedures and recording of interrogations. Several states have created commissions to examine the cause of wrongful conviction and recommend remedies.

View a map of reforms enacted nationwide, and learn more about reforms supported by the Innocence Project in our Fix the System section.

Q.

A.