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IPNO currently accepts applications
for legal representation from prisoners in Louisiana and Mississippi
who claim that they are innocent. At the beginning of the
21st century, Louisiana, with over 36,000 prisoners in the
state correctional system, had the highest incarceration rate
of any state in the country, with 801 prisoners for every
100,000 people. Mississippi is third, with over 24,000 prisoners
and 768 prisoners for every 100,000 people. If we were to
assume that the system was mistaken only 1% of the time, that
still means that more than 600 innocent people are behind
bars in these two states alone.
Casework Priorities
Because in the Deep South so little case evidence is actually
preserved after trial by the authorities, IPNO not only litigates
cases where DNA testing will resolve the issue of guilt or
innocence, but also cases where no such short cut to exoneration
exists. Nine out of the twelve innocent clients that IPNO
has freed have been in cases in which no DNA testing was possible
or in which more than DNA evidence was needed to free the
client. To read about the prisoners that IPNO has exonerated,
go to Cases.
IPNO's current casework priority areas are cases in which
the person was a juvenile when arrested (as part of our
Juvenile Initiative) and cases in the Hurricane Katrina
and Rita affected regions in which DNA testing could be dispositive
of guilt or innocence.
Case Screening
IPNO conducts a preliminary screening of applications and
reviews the applications against nationally accepted indicia
of wrongful conviction. On these factors, it is determined
which cases will be advanced to Stage 1 screening,
where existing case documentation such as transcripts can
be fully reviewed, and DNA evidence is located if it exists.
If a case passes Stage 1 Screening, it is then moved
to Stage 2, where it is more thoroughly investigated
and new evidence is sought. A non-DNA case may wait for several
years for investigative resources to be available in this
stage. If at the end of an exhaustive Stage 2 investigation
it appears that the innocence claim has merit and that there
is new, credible evidence that supports the innocence claim,
the case is presented to IPNO's case review panel, consisting
of Board and Advisory Panel members with the relevant expertise,
who determine whether the case should be advanced to Stage
3 and litigated, or whether further investigation is needed,
or whether it should be rejected.
If a case reaches Stage 3, further investigation is
conducted and an exhaustive application for post conviction
relief is prepared for filing in the appropriate court by
IPNO staff attorneys. The application filed in court will
contain a request for DNA testing if relevant. If an evidentiary
hearing is achieved, IPNO attorneys conduct the hearing, often
with the assistance of pro bono outside counsel.
Applying for Help
IPNO only accepts applications directly from prisoners convicted
in Louisiana and Mississippi and only by mail. To request
an application, the prisoner should
contact IPNO by mail.
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