The Red Velvet Lawyer

The Appalachian School of Law's Innocence Project The Appalachian School of Law established a local chapter of the Innocence Project in 2012.   Mission Statement The website of the national organization explains its mission: The Innocence Project was founded in 1992 by Barry C. Scheck and Peter J. Neufeld at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University to assist prisoners who could be proven innocent through DNA testing. To date, more than 300 people in the United States have been exonerated by DNA testing, including 18 who served time on death row. These people served an average of 13 years in prison before exoneration and release.  The Innocence Project’s full-time staff attorneys and Cardozo clinic students provide direct representation or critical assistance in most of these cases. The Innocence Project’s groundbreaking use of DNA technology to free innocent people has provided irrefutable proof that wrongful convictions are not isolate...

Appalachian School of Law Criminal Law Society The Criminal Law Society is one of the oldest student organizations on campus. Mission Statement The Criminal Law Society furthers, within the law school and the legal community, education about criminal law issues. It also provides a forum for individuals within the law school to express views about criminal law. Activities and Events The CLS sponsors the annual Barrister's Ball, a black-tie event that benefits local charities. It also hosts an annual Opening Statement Competition.  The Criminal Law Society also invites speakers and hosts panel discussions on current topics of interest in criminal law.  It collaborated with the Innocence Project to bring Daryl Hunt to campus to discuss his exoneration in 2005 after DNA evidence matched an incarcerated man with the crime scene.  That man later admitted the crime. In 2011, it hosted a debate between Tamara Ne...