LINCOLN, Neb. (KOLN) – The University of Nebraska College of Law will start operating a clinic poised to address wrongful convictions and advocate for the innocent among the state’s incarcerated population.
In Nebraska, more than 5,500 people are incarcerated in 10 state prisons and another 1,000 are in the custody of private prisons and local jails. According to data from the Prison Policy Initiative and U.S. Department of Justice, the state’s incarceration rate is among the highest in the nation.
However, the UNL College of Law is looking to help reduce Nebraska’s incarceration rate.
UNL received a $600,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Justice to support the Innocence Clinic, Nebraska’s 10th clinical program. Third-year law students will work alongside the Midwest Innocence Project to identify potential wrongful convictions. The grant funding will assist in moving more than 41 cases from the existing waitlist forward.
“Our clinical programs help students develop skills that they will rely on in practice,” said Richard Moberly, dean of the College of Law. “The Innocence Clinic will contribute to training the next generation of Nebraska lawyers as they learn about the causes of wrongful conviction and experience case identification and litigation of actual innocence claims.”
UNL said two studies that were published within the past decade estimate that 4% to 6% of people incarcerated in U.S. prisons are actually innocent. For Nebraska, that would mean as many as 300 people are currently serving sentences for crimes they did not commit.
To date, there have been just 10 exonerations in Nebraska history, six of which stemmed from a single case commonly known as the ‘Beatrice 6′.
The UNL College of Law also hopes to educate students on how and why it happens so when they graduate and go into the field — it won’t happen in the first place.
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