CENTER FOR INTEGRITY IN FORENSIC SCIENCES INC

Founded in 2017, CIFS is the only non-profit organization in the nation dedicated solely to challenging and improving the flawed forensic evidence our system has come to rely upon, and educating judges, lawyers, and scientists about the criteria for reliability of forensic disciplines. The need for this work is enormous; through tracking by the National Registry of Exonerations, we know that over 2,000 innocent people have been exonerated since 1989, from wrongful convictions sometimes decades old. Mistaken, exaggerated, or outright false testimony from purported forensic scientists played a role in 24% of these wrongful convictions. Of the approximately 350 innocent people from this group whom DNA testing has freed, nearly half--a shocking 45%--had trials that featured faulty, false, or otherwise unreliable forensic science. Today, CIFS is making steady progress in its pursuit of legislative, systemic, educational, and direct service goals, focusing specifically on addressing unreliable outcomes in the criminal justice system produced by unscientific and inadequately validated forensic disciplines and evidence.