Welcome to BrainStuff, BrainStuff, a production of I-Heart Radio.

Hey BrainStuff, Lauren Vogelbaum here.

In the United States, a person accused of a crime is innocent until proven guilty.

This is one of the guiding legal principles of the US criminal justice system.

But the flip side of the presumption of innocence is that once a person is found guilty by a jury,

the burden of proof to overturn that conviction falls completely on them,

and it's extremely difficult.

It's so difficult that even if an attorney discovers overwhelming evidence,

that still might not be enough to garner the person's release.

That means for a wrongfully convicted person, the uphill legal battle toward exoneration

might prove impossible. Netflix series like Making a Murderer and podcasts like Serial demonstrate just how difficult it can be to even get a new trial.

That's where the work and legal expertise of organizations like the Innocence Project

become so important.

These organizations are dedicated to providing free legal services to innocent people behind bars so that they have a fighting chance of gaining their freedom.

In 1992, the Innocence Project was founded in New York City to exonerate the wrongfully convicted through DNA testing, and the nonprofit organization

works to reform the criminal justice system.

By 2004, more organizations formed and began meeting at an annual conference.

The Association shifted to a loosely affiliated network with 15 initial members and an executive board the following year.

Today, the Innocence Network includes 67 member organizations around the world, 55 of which are located in the United States, mostly housed in law schools.

The organizations provide pro bono, that is free legal services,

to people who have been convicted of crimes

and are seeking to prove their innocence.

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