Ballymun Community Law Centre is pleased to announce the commencement of their Lunchtime Law Talk series.
On 5 April 2011 there will be a talk on the Innocence Project, given by Barry Fitzgerald BL.
On 20 April 2011, there will be a talk on Cosmetics and the Law, given by Jennifer Brown, PhD candidate DCU.
Admission is free and light refreshments will be available after each event.
Cosmetics and the Law
Cosmetic surgery is in the news every week now but there is little known about the legal implications of this controversial procedure. Jennifer Brown, PhD candidate DCU who has studied widely in this area will talk about the many unknown complications for people who intend to or who have undergone cosmetic surgery and will share her thoughts on the necessary law reform in this area.
The Innocence Project
The Innocence Project was founded in 1992 by Barry C. Scheck and Peter J. Neufeld at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University to assist prisoners who had been wrongly convicted of serious crimes. The early work of the Innocence Project revealed that coercive police interrogation techniques; the use of unreliable accomplice or eyewitness evidence; and the provision of incompetent or ineffective legal counsel were some of the factors that lead to the imprisonment and even execution of innocent people.
In recent years innovations in the use of DNA evidence have lent fresh impetus to the work innocence projects and a global network has emerged including in the past few months, an Irish innocence project. To date, 261 wrongly convicted people in the United States alone have been exonerated by DNA testing. These innocent people have served an average of 13 years in prison before exoneration and release. 17 of these have served time on death row. Barry Fitzgerald BL who worked on the Wisconsin Innocence Project last year will detail how the Project works.
Both events take place in the Council Chamber, Civic Offices, Ballymun from 1 to 2pm. To book your place and for further information please phone Christina Beresford BCLC: 01 8625805.