About Us

The mission of The Justice Project's Criminal Justice Reform Campaigns is to address unfairness and inaccuracy in the American criminal justice system. We develop, coordinate, and implement integrated national and state-based campaigns involving public education, litigation and legislation to reform the criminal justice system, with particular focus on capital punishment.

The Problem: A Broken System

The American criminal justice system is broken. Since the reinstatement of the death penalty in the 1970s, more than 120 people have been exonerated from death row in 25 states -- roughly one for every eight executed. The most comprehensive study of capital trials ever conducted found that nearly seven of every 10 death sentences handed down by state courts from 1973 to 1995 were overturned due to "serious, reversible error," including egregiously incompetent defense counsel, suppression of exculpatory evidence, false confessions, racial manipulation of the jury, snitch and accomplice testimony, and faulty jury instructions.

From prosecutors to victims' rights groups, from defense lawyers to judges to law enforcement, reasonable people agree that our system of justice must protect the innocent and punish the guilty -- not the other way around. Read more.

The Solution

The Justice Project works to implement meaningful substantive reforms that address the legacy of wrongful conviction in this country by enhancing protections for innocent people accused of crimes. We do this by advancing our National Agenda for Reform and through our national and state campaigns.