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.

*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.

(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