Innocence Project Comes To Temple

MyFox Philadelphia- Philadelphia, PA

A nationwide organization that has worked to exonerate hundreds of wrongfully convicted inmates has a new affiliate housed at Temple University.

The Pennsylvania Innocence Project, based at Temple University's law school, opens its doors Monday. It will review petitions submitted from around the state by inmates who say they are serving time for crimes they did not commit.

The group will start with about a dozen law students and a similar number of attorneys but hopes to expand statewide. Organizers say it will look not only at cases with DNA evidence but also those with questionable forensic evidence or other issues.

The first Innocence Project was founded in 1992 in New York. The organization says there are now 50 such groups that have exonerated 400 inmates -- more than half of those through DNA evidence.