Santa Clara University: Northern California Innocence Project Hosts Inaugural Justice for All Awards Dinner

Santa Clara, CA Business Wire Press Release

March 25, 2008

Santa Clara University’s Northern California Innocence Project (NCIP) will host its inaugural Justice for All Awards Dinner on March 27, honoring individuals for their work on behalf of the wrongfully convicted. The awards dinner comes on the eve of the 2008 Innocence Network Conference which will be held at Santa Clara University March 28–30.

“The Justice for All Awards Dinner provides the opportunity for our supporters to meet the exonerees whose lives they have touched, hear their stories, and see firsthand why the Innocence Project fights tirelessly for justice,” said Kathleen “Cookie” Ridolfi, director of the Northern California Innocence Project.

Inaugural Justice for All Awards Dinner, March 27: This event will be held at the Fairmont Hotel in San Jose on March 27 and will honor five individuals for their work on behalf of the wrongfully convicted. Award recipients are Frank Quattrone, NCIP’s Advisory Board Chair; John Van de Kamp, chair of the California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice; exoneree Antoine Goff; and Dana Nachman and Don Hardy, local documentary filmmakers who worked closely with the NCIP on their film “An American Witch Hunt.” Attorney Barry Scheck will give the keynote address.

2008 Innocence Network Conference, March 28–30: The national conference will take place this year at Santa Clara University, home base of the NCIP. The three-day conference brings together hundreds of people who work against wrongful convictions.

Among those attending the conference are attorneys, educators, civic and business leaders, and exonerated individuals who have been wrongfully convicted and imprisoned. John Van de Kamp, former state attorney general, will participate in the conference, along with speakers representing Innocence Projects from Hawaii, Wisconsin, Connecticut, Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia, Ohio, New York, and New Orleans, including the co-founders of the first Innocence Project, professors Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld of Cardozo School of Law. Conference sessions are closed to the media. Photos will be available following the conference. For more information about the conference or photos, please contact Amy Kennedy at 408-551-3000 x6189 or aekennedy@scu.edu.

Hearing on the Death Penalty, March 28: The California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice will be holding its third and final public hearing at Santa Clara University from 9:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. The hearing will address the fair administration of the death penalty in California. Visit the commission’s Web site at http://www.ccfaj.org/ for more information.

About Santa Clara University Santa Clara University, a comprehensive Jesuit, Catholic university located 40 miles south of San Francisco in California’s Silicon Valley, offers its 8,685 students rigorous undergraduate curricula in arts and sciences, business, and engineering, plus master’s and law degrees and engineering Ph.D.s. Distinguished nationally by one of the highest graduation rates among all U.S. master’s universities, California’s oldest operating higher-education institution demonstrates faith-inspired values of ethics and social justice. For more information, see http://www.scu.edu/.