Innocence Project
Definition
A US non-profit organisation founded in 1992 by Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld that uses DNA testing to challenge wrongful convictions. Its casework database has provided much of the empirical record linking specific forensic disciplines, including bite marks, to wrongful convictions.
Related terms
- Foundational Validity
- The requirement, articulated in the 2009 US National Academy of Sciences report and taken up by courts and reform bodies, that a...
- Bite-Mark Analysis
- A pattern-comparison discipline in which a forensic odontologist attempts to link a bite wound on a victim to the dentition of a...
- Black-Box Study
- A study in which qualified examiners are given realistic test cases with known ground truth and asked to make decisions under conditions...
- Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC)
- An independent public body in England and Wales, established by the Criminal Appeal Act 1995, that reviews suspected miscarriages of justice and...
- Goudge Inquiry
- The Ontario Inquiry into Pediatric Forensic Pathology, conducted by Justice Stephen Goudge and reported in 2008. It examined wrongful convictions arising from...
- Inter-Examiner Reliability
- The degree to which different qualified examiners reach the same conclusion when independently analysing the same evidence. Studies of bite mark analysis...
- Microscopic Hair Comparison
- A forensic technique in which an examiner visually compares morphological features of hair samples under a microscope. DNA testing has shown that...
- Skin Distortion
- The deformation of a bite mark pattern caused by the viscoelastic properties of skin, body position, postmortem change, and healing. PCAST identified...
- Wrongful Conviction
- A conviction that is later determined to be factually incorrect, usually through post-conviction DNA testing or other newly available evidence. Bite mark...
Explained in these topics
- The Bite Mark Controversy: NAS and PCAST CritiquesA US non-profit organisation founded in 1992 by Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld that uses DNA testing to challenge wrongful convictions. Its casework database h...
- Wrongful Convictions and Forensic ErrorA US non-profit legal organization founded in 1992 that uses DNA testing to challenge convictions. Its exoneration database is the primary empirical source for...