Madeline DeLone is the executive director of The Innocence Project, a national organization that uses litigation to exonerate wrongfully convicted individuals through DNA testing. The organization also advocates for public policy reforms to prevent the criminal justice system from incarcerating innocent people. Founded in 1992, The Innocence Project’s work has led to the exoneration of 343 wrongfully convicted Americans. Before joining the organization in 2004, DeLone worked for the Prisoners’ Rights Project of the Legal Aid Society and also served as the editor of the American Public Health Association’s Standards for Health Services in Correctional Institutions.
BPR: What is the main objective of The Innocence Project and what are the methods that the organization uses to achieve those goals?
MD: The Innocence Project is a litigation and public policy nonprofit. We represent people across the country who are in prison and have claims of innocence that can be proven with DNA technology. And we use the lessons learned from studying those wrongful convictions to advocate for legislative changes to prevent wrongful convictions from happening in the first place. This is all with the goal of freeing the innocent and making the criminal justice system in this country more fair. The tools we use are litigation on individual cases to free people from prison who shouldn’t be there because they had absolutely nothing to do with the crime committed. We have a policy staff that works in state legislatures. We have staff that works with police departments on the very front end to enact reform. We also work with media in a broad communication campaign to make the public understand that innocent people are in the criminal justice system, and we have the duty to make sure their lives are not derailed by mistakes that can be fixed.
BPR: How does The Innocence Project decide what cases to take on?
MD: We hear from about 200 people a month whom we have never heard from before. Deciding to take a case is a very careful process. First, we decide whether there is an innocence claim that is consistent since the time of conviction. Second, we decide if there is DNA testing that can prove innocence. These are largely cases where biological material was left on the crime scene, which are mostly sexual assault and rape cases.
BPR: Seventy percent of the individuals who The Innocence Project has worked to exonerate are part of minority groups. What role does the organization have in working to reverse the systemic prejudice in the criminal justice system?
MD: The racial disparity in the exonerations is very clear. In the sexual assault cases, we see the problem of cross-racial misidentification. That is a known and understood phenomenon that people of different races do not recognize people across racial groups as well as they do within their own racial group. But on a broader scale, our responsibility is to look at issues of systematic racial bias in the criminal justice system. It permeates the whole system, and it is certainly demonstrated time and time again by these cases.
BPR: Eyewitness misidentification represents the largest cause of wrongful conviction. How can the criminal justice system work to prevent this?
MD: The Innocence Project has identified four major reforms to prevent misidentification. The single most critical reform is that the person who administers the lineup in an identification case does not know who the suspect is. In other words, the administrator should be blind to the right answer. Even when the administrator has no intention of tainting the lineup, it makes a huge impact. The second is that the person picking from a lineup should be told that the perpetrator may not be there. Third, the lineup fillers should resemble the key descriptions that the victim gave. Finally, the witness should give a confidence statement, describing the certainty of their identification, at the time of the identification itself. Those are the four simple reforms that we think states should adopt. There are 20 states in the country where all police departments have adopted those reforms. The federal government has also adopted these eyewitness reforms, which is fabulous, but it does not mandate that the state criminal justice departments follow suit.
BPR: How does The Innocence Project help the wrongfully convicted individuals once they are released from prison? Does the organization provide any rehabilitative services?
MD: The Innocence Project has two sets of programs that address these issues. We work on the policy level to try to pass laws that compensate wrongly convicted people as a matter of state policy. The state should compensate people on a financial level, but also in terms of provision of basic resources for re-entry. That includes health insurance, mental health care, access to housing, and some job training. We are working with our allies in legislatures across the country to try to get laws passed. We also work with the clients that we represent. Over the years, we have developed a social work department and a fund that helps to provide some resources to these people. We do this on the individual level, but like everything else we do, we try to work towards systemic reform as well.
BPR: What has been the most meaningful part of your work at The Innocence Project?
MD: Each time we exonerate someone, it feels almost like a miracle, despite the fact that we know how much hard work goes into it. The exonerees themselves are inspirational to all of us. They have such perseverance, strength of character, enormous optimism, generosity, and a desire to make the world better. You would think that 100 or 150 cases later, I would get numb to it, or take it for granted. But I never take it for granted.