Wrongful Convictions, DNA, and the Future of the Criminal Justice System

Speaker Barry Scheck, criminal law professor and director of the Innocence Project at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, has been a pioneer in criminal justice reform and is a passionate advocate known for his landmark litigation, setting standards for forensic applications of DNA technology. His work has shaped the course of case law across the country and led to an influential study by the National Academy of Sciences on forensic DNA testing, as well as important state and federal legislation. The organization he co-founded, the Innocence Project, has helped exonerate scores of wrongly convicted men and women through post-conviction DNA testing and has had strong impact on the national debate over criminal justice and the death penalty. He serves this year as President of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. He coauthored "Actual Innocence: Five Days to Execution and Other Dispatches from the Wrongly Convicted." He is a commissioner on New York's Forensic Science Review Board, a body that regulates all of the state's crime and forensic DNA laboratories. In addition, Scheck has represented such notable clients as Hedda Nussbaum, O. J. Simpson, Louise Woodward, and Abner Louima.

Sponsored by the Stanford Legal Clinics, the Stanford Center for Criminal Justice, and a number of student groups.