Innocence Project Northwest (IPNW) Clinic

The Innocence Project Northwest (IPNW) Clinic grew out of a volunteer effort aimed at freeing inmates who have been wrongfully convicted of crimes. Since IPNW’s inception in 1997, volunteer students and attorneys have overturned the convictions of 12 innocent people in Washington state.

Students in the clinic investigate cases, conduct research, write briefs, and advocate for the release of clients.     They have appeared in Washington State Superior Courts, the Washington Court of Appeals, the Washington State Supreme Court and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. 

The IPNW Clinic is particularly active in pursuing DNA testing on physical evidence to demonstrate innocence.     Over 200 wrongly convicted people in 32 states have been exonerated through DNA testing. In more than one-third of the DNA exonerations nationwide, DNA testing also helped identify the true perpetrator.

The IPNW Clinic represents indigent people in Washington who are serving long prison terms, who claim their innocence, and who no longer have a right to court-appointed counsel. Each month, the clinic receives more than 50 requests for assistance from inmates. The IPNW Clinic takes cases that involve a variety of serious felonies such as assault, murder and sexual abuse. Common to all cases is the inmate's claim of innocence.

IPNW Clinic in the News

• Innocence Project Receives Gift, Reverses Another Conviction
  On the heels of receiving a generous gift from the RiverStyx Foundation, the Innocence Project Northwest Clinic learned that the clinic secured its 13th conviction reversal.
• Xmas at Walla Walla: innocent man awaits release - Seattle PI
  After four Christmases behind bars for a crime he didn't commit, James Anderson was released just in time to celebrate Christmas 2008 at home after evidence produced by Innocence Project Northwest helped Anderson prove he was in California when the crime was committed in Tacoma.
• New DNA Methods Could Throw More Convictions Into Doubt - Seattle Weekly
  UW's McMurtrie and her team of post-conviction sleuths are assisting several clients in their requests for post-conviction DNA testing.  "All we're asking," says McMurtrie, "is that the test be allowed so we can determine . . .innocence or . . . guilt."     
• DNA evidence overturns Yakima man's rape conviction - Seattle Times
  "We're just delighted that both the trial court and court of appeals found the weight of the scientific evidence would probably result in a different verdict," said Jackie McMurtrie, director of the Innocence Project Northwest, which represented Bradford. "Mr. Bradford is innocent."
• Clinic Fights for Those Wrongfully Convicted -KCBA Bar Bulletin
  The Innocence Project Northwest first entered the public eye when it helped obtain the release of several individuals convicted in the Wenatchee sex ring cases. Since the project’s inception in 1997, volunteer students, professors and attorneys have successfully challenged the convictions of 12 wrongfully convicted people in Washington.