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Fighting for Justice, Restoring Lives


The Kentucky Innocence Project (KIP) invites students, professionals, and community members to join in the fight against wrongful convictions. Every effort—large or small—helps advance justice, restore lives, and strengthen trust in our legal system.


Together, we can create a future where every person’s right to freedom and justice is protected.

Professionals

Attorneys, investigators, and expert professionals play an essential role in the work. Whether through reviewing case materials, providing expert analysis, or lending specialized skills, your expertise can make a life-changing difference for those wrongfully convicted.


Community Members

You don’t have to work in the legal field to make an impact. Community members can help by raising awareness about wrongful convictions, supporting advocacy efforts, fundraising and promoting reforms that strengthen fairness and accountability in Kentucky’s justice system.


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.

More Information
A man and a woman are standing next to each other and the woman is raising her fist in the air
A man in a leather jacket is sitting at a table with his eyes closed.

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.