DPA, GRANTS & Externships
Fighting for Justice, Restoring Lives
The Kentucky Innocence Project provides a variety of opportunities for students, community members, and professionals to get involved in the fight against wrongful convictions. These include:
Law School Externships: KIP offers externships to law students who want to gain experience working on real-life cases and contributing to the organization's mission.
Professionals: KIP regularly partners with experts and other lawyers in case reviews, investigations and case related matters.
Community Members: DPA works with community members to spread the word on wrongful convictions and to promote criminal justice reform.
Externships
The Kentucky Innocence Project (KIP) is housed within the Department of Public Advocacy and provides externship opportunities for all three Kentucky law schools. KIP serves incarcerated men and women who have legitimate claims of innocence and provides resources through which their claims may be investigated and presented to the courts of the Commonwealth for relief. KIP externs review, investigate and litigate cases which raise issues of wrongful convictions. During the one year externship students work with attorneys and investigators to review cases and plan litigation, while at the same time sharpening their legal skills and practical knowledge of the statues, cases and procedure in the criminal law field.
During the one year externship students explore a variety of issues which are the known causes of wrongful conviction, including:
- Witness misidentification
- False confessions
- Government misconduct
- Ineffective assistance of counsel
Special attention is given to addressing weak and misleading forensic issues, and emerging concerns regarding the use of invalid forensic science in securing convictions. KIP has been responsible for twenty exonerations since the program started.
Top Photo: Edwin Chandler, whose conviction was overturned in 2009.
Bottom Photo: Keith Hardin, whose conviction was overturned in 2016. In Hardin’s case the lead detective was subsequently charged with perjury.