The Exoneration Initiative

The Exoneration Initiative ("EXI") is a free legal assistance program dedicated to exonerating the factually innocent. We are a young, innovative non-profit organization at the forefront of the actual innocence movement in New York state.

The Exoneration Initiative provides free legal assistance to wrongfully convicted people whose cases lack DNA evidence. Because the majority of criminal cases do not contain biological evidence, most wrongful convictions occur in cases that lack DNA evidence which could prove innocence. EXI is a unique organization with the expertise and commitment essential to effectively litigate non-DNA innocence cases to exoneration. Our program is tailored to apply the lessons learned from DNA exonerations to non-DNA cases. EXI carefully screens cases for evidence of innocence, using a multi-tiered evaluation process we have developed to identify wrongful convictions.

Our mission is to provide free legal services to inmates who are actually innocent; to conduct impact litigation to advance legal developments favorable to potentially wrongfully convicted persons; and to inform and educate the public, the legal profession and the judiciary about the causes of wrongful convictions and the fallibility of the criminal justice system.