Members of innocence organizations and lawyers who represent wrongfully convicted persons in the US and East Asia gathered online on December 9, 2021 to share their challenges and achievements over the past year. It was the second year in a row that the U.S.-Asia Law Institute hosted an online wrongful convictions roundtable.
Event recap: Trends in the Innocence Movement in Asia and the U.S.
On December 8 2020, US-Asia Law Institute held an online webinar featuring the recent developments in the “innocence” work in both East Asia and the United States. This event invited experts from China, Japan, Taiwan and the U.S. to share with the audience the significant trends in exonerating the innocent, with special focuses on the exclusion of junk science and the positive and negative roles played by prosecutors.
Defense lawyer Wang Wanqiong’s account of the Chen Man exoneration case is published
A new book about the story of an exoneree in a high-profile wrongful conviction case, Chen Man has been published lately. The author, Dr. Wang Wanqiong who represented Chen Man during the petition procedure gives a detailed account of the journey between the initial wrongful arrest to the final exoneration, and touches upon systemic problems that lead to wrongful convictions.
Shangquan Law Office Celebrates Fifth Anniversary of Wrongful Conviction Legal Aid Project
The Wrongful Conviction Legal Aid Project was jointly founded by Shangquan Law Office and China University of Political Science and Law in 2015. Inspired by The Innocence Project in the US, the Legal Aid Project engages prestigious scholars, practitioners, the media, experienced criminal defense lawyers, and volunteer students in providing free legal assistance to actual innocent applicants who are wrongfully convicted of serious violent crimes. Over the past five years, the project has received more than 400 applications and taken on 15 cases. To date, 15 defendants in six cases have been exonerated.
The video below explains the goal of the project and highlights of its work.
Preventing Miscarriages of Justice in Asia
On April 1, 2020. Senior Research Fellow Ira Belkin and USALI staff Allen Clayton-Greene, Amy Gao, Yin Chi, and Eli Blood-Patterson introduce the U.S.-Asia Law Institute's (USALI) program: "Preventing and Redressing Wrongful Convictions." Through this program, international experts, including individuals who themselves had been wrongfully convicted and later exonerated, shared their experience and state-of-the-art expertise with the Asian criminal justice community concerning the root causes of wrongful convictions and measures that can be adopted to prevent them and redress them. Belkin discusses the project background, activities, and lessons learned, while USALI staff members share the long-term impact the program has had in Taiwan, China, and Japan respectively.
Over the course of the four year program, approximately 70 criminal justice experts from Asia participated in intensive month-long workshops at NYU and over 500 Chinese and Japanese experts attended lectures given by USALI-sponsored international experts in China and Japan, respectively. The use of social media expanded the audience in Asia to hundreds of thousands. The project has led to the expansion of Innocence work in Asia as well as more Asian experts joining the international community of lawyers doing Innocence work. Project participants published several books and numerous articles in multiple languages on topics relevant to Innocence work, from how common interrogation techniques can lead to false confessions to why prisons should have law libraries.
Event Videos
Part I: Senior Research Fellow Ira Belkin discusses the project background.
Part II: Senior Research Fellow discusses the project overview, including activities in New York and overseas.
Part III: Research Scholar Yin Chi discusses the project impact in China, especially its impact for Innocence Movement Groups.
Part IV: Research Scholar Allen Clayton-Greene introduces the Taiwan Innocence Project, including the successful exonerations and capacity building in Asia.
Part V: Research Scholar Amy Gao introduces Innocence Project Japan (IPJ) and USALI’s impact in Japan.
Project VI: Research Scholar and Program Manager Eli-Blood Patterson discusses the impact that the project had in the United States.
Part VII: Senior Research Fellow Ira Belkin discusses lessons learned from the project.
Evidence Science
Snapshot of the over of Evidence Science with highlighted articles from USALI’s Visiting Scholars
The December 2018 issue of Evidence Science included several articles by former Visiting Scholars, including Weijing Huang, Jie Meng, Jinxi Wang, Xiaoyu Sun, Kuibun Zhu, and Yuejun Lan. Additionally, a translation from USALI staff Chao Liu and Yuan Gao was included in the publication.
Table of Contents
(Original Chinese language Table of Contents listed below)
Empirical Study of Police Fabricated Evidence in Wrongful Convictions in the U.S. by Weijing Huang
Induce or Prevent False Confession – A Study on Reid Interrogation Technique in the U.S. by Jie Meng
Cognitive Bias and Blindness: A Global Survey of Forensic Science Examiners by Jeff Kukucka, Saul M. Kassin, Patricia A. Zapf, Itiel Dror, Translated by Jinxi Wang
A Preliminary Study of the North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission by Xiaoyu Sun
Police Induced False Confessions: Risk Factors and Prevention Recommendations by Saul M.Kassin, Steven A.Drizin, Thomas Grisso, Gisli H.Gudjonsson, Richard A.Leo, Allison D.Redlich, Translated by Chao Liu, Yuan Gao
Use Evidence Collected by the Supervision Agencies in Criminal Litigation by Yuejun Lan
Road-map for Application of Interrogation Recording in “Trial Centered” Reform by Kuibin Zhu
