In our latest feature on clinical legal education programmes around Ireland, we focus on the Innocence Project at Griffith College Dublin (GCD). This programme is a perfect example of the significant impact that law students are capable of making in complex human rights issues. It is also an example of a clinical legal education project co-ordinating work by students from different tertiary institutions.
The Innocence Project at GCD is part of The Innocence Network, which co-ordinates other Innocence Projects in the USA, Canada, UK, Australia, and New Zealand. The Innocence Network was established in 1992 at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, with the original objective of exonerating innocent persons through post-conviction DNA testing. The Innocence Network now also works on other types of cases with the goal of exonerating those who believe they have been wrongfully convicted.
The Irish Innocence Project has three core objectives:
- investigate possible wrongful convictions of those who claim factual innocence;
- provide clinical education for law students through close supervision of possible wrongful convictions; and
- investing in the legal professionals of the future who uphold the values of truth, justice and fortitude.
David Langwallner, Dean of Law at GCD says that the inspiration for bringing the project to Ireland was a desire to instil in law students a passion for social justice, and an awareness of the ability of law to effect social change. There was also a desire to teach students core clinical skills and to give them tangible experience that would be recognised by employers. The legislative motivation for the project's existence in Ireland is Section 2 of Ireland's Criminal Procedure Act 1993. This provision says that if a "new or newly discovered fact" relating to a crime for which an individual is convicted is presented to the Court, that person's conviction may be reviewed or quashed.
Students work on the project as case workers, reviewing cases of miscarriages of justice. The type of work that students undertake includes reviewing case files, handling correspondence, researching law, preparing interim and final reports, interviewing witnesses, going on prison visits under supervision, conducting consultations under supervision.
Since the Innocence Project's launch at GCD in 2009, 40 people have contacted the project. There are 20 active files that include a wide range of offences including very serious ones. Mr Langwallner says one file is currently being prepared with a view to going back before the Court of Criminal Appeal in late 2011 or early 2012.
The project is currently composed of GCD and Trinity students, but it is now extending its reach by welcoming case worker applications from law students at any Irish tertiary institution. The application deadline for new case workers is September 19th and the project will be conducting interviews in late September and early October.
You can find out more about the Innocence Project on their website, and apply to become a case worker by emailing innocenceproject@gcd.ie. Click here to find links (bottom of the page) to Irish interviews with Dr Greg Hampikian, director of the Idaho Innocence Project and DNA expert for the Georgia Innocence Project, who worked closely with GCD's David Langwallner to tailor the project to Ireland.
You can also read our previous features on clinical legal education programmes at NUIG, UCC and DIT.