“The lacrosse case attracted a lot of publicity, but is not the only case in which innocent people have suffered harm through the state’s legal system,” said Duke Law Professor James Coleman, who led a university committee that examined the lacrosse team’s behavior apart from the case and later was prominent in criticizing the actions of former Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong.

“Three of our students suffered a grave injustice at the hands of the legal system, and we were relieved when their innocence was finally established,” Brodhead said. “Nonetheless, their ordeal reminded all of us that our legal system is imperfect and innocent people can be accused unfairly. I am determined that we will make some good come out of the grave injustice that took place. We are fortunate to have on our own campus a program that already is a leader on this issue and will now be able to expand its work substantially through this new center.”

An important part of the center will be a public policy initiative that examines issues relating to criminal justice and professional responsibility. Coleman said the associated faculty, students and fellows will participate in efforts to reform the criminal justice system and prevent wrongful convictions, such as by providing expert testimony in support of legislative reforms, drafting model legislation and filing amicus curiae briefs.

In addition, Coleman said the center will offer summer and postgraduate fellowships for students and others to assist the clinic and undertake scholarly research relating to criminal justice. It also will bring criminal justice professionals and journalists to Duke to participate in roundtables and short-term seminars on criminal justice. The center also may sponsor public education programs, and its website and publication will bring its activities and related issues to wider audiences.

The new center was recommended to Brodhead and Provost Peter Lange, the university’s senior academic officer, by law school Dean David Levi, who is a former prosecutor and federal judge.

“We know that our criminal justice system is not perfect,” Levi said. “It is subject to human error, misconduct and other distortions of the truth-seeking process. As a former prosecutor and judge, I know that no honorable prosecutor seeks the conviction of the innocent.

“A university law school like ours has a unique responsibility and opportunity to address such problems, to increase public awareness of them and to assist those who are wronged by flaws in the system,” Levi added. “By doing so, we also assist the victims of crime and their families who place special reliance on the integrity of the criminal justice system. This new center at Duke represents a major commitment by the university and the law school to the pursuit of criminal justice.”

Duke Law School’s Innocence Project and Wrongful Convictions Clinic will continue to collaborate with the North Carolina Center on Actual Innocence, an independent non-profit organization founded in 2000 to heighten communication and coordination between Duke’s Innocence Project and a similar project at the University of North Carolina School of Law. The North Carolina Center helped establish Innocence Projects or similar programs at all of the other law schools in North Carolina -- at North Carolina Central University, Campbell University, Wake Forest University, Elon University and the Charlotte School of Law.
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A Fall 2005 Duke Law Magazine article about the Innocence Project is online at http://www.law.duke.edu/magazine/2005fall/features/innocenceindex.html.