A team of three lawyers and dedicated law students form The Innocence Project at the University of Virginia’s School of Law. They work on legislative reform and represent wrongfully convicted Virginians, with clients who have served over two decades in prison for crimes they did not commit. There are numerous substantive and procedural hurdles to being exonerated in Virginia; if successful, people come out of incarceration with little to no remaining family, high rates of PTSD, and are forced to restart their lives from scratch.
The Project has been around for over a decade and to this day has released 15 clients from prison, but the need remains ongoing. The Innocence Project is always seeking community partners who can provide mental health, financial, economic and social resources for their clients who are reintegrating into society. We spoke with Director Jenny Givens and Associate Director Juliet Hatchett for this Hear Together profile.
