In the aftermath of the scandal involving wrongful accusations of several Duke lacrosse players, the Duke Law School has announced that it will spend $1.25 million on a center that will incorporate and expand the law school’s Wrongful Convictions Clinic and Innocence Project. The purpose of the center is to promote criminal justice and train lawyers to fight wrongful convictions. The center will expand the existing Wrongful Convictions Clinic to include an undergraduate course on the causes and remedies for wrongful convictions and courses taught by experts in areas such as forensic science, eyewitness identifications and false confessions. The programs will continue to investigate credible claims of innocence made by convicted felons in N. C. and work to raise public awareness of systemic problems in the criminal justice system that lead to wrongful convictions.
Duke University President Richard Brodhead stated that “three of our students suffered a grave injustice at the hands of the legal system... I am determined that we will make some good come out of the grave injustice that took place."
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