Our Work
While a wrongful conviction may seem unimaginable to some, for our community, it is a daily reality, causing deep, intergenerational harm.
The Long Path to
Freedom and Healing
The Legal Process is Difficult by Design
Innocent people and their loved ones are forced into a grueling, years-long legal battle not just for their freedom, but to clear their name and receive compensation within a system designed to uphold convictions at all costs.
How We Do It
Why Our Approach is Different
We take on some of the most challenging wrongful conviction cases in the region.
In cases without DNA or biological evidence, we must uncover the truth in other ways. Many cases are decades old, meaning evidence is often lost, and witnesses have passed away. These complex battles take years to investigate and litigate, but we never give up.
These complex cases involve incredible effort, collaboration, and resources.
Overcoming institutional resistance requires a dedicated team, thousands of hours of rigorous analysis, and tens of thousands of dollars for investigators, experts, and testing. It takes a massive, collaborative effort to uncover the truth and bring an innocent person home.
We are often people’s last resort.
Many people come to us because they have nowhere else to turn. And while the work is hard, every person we free reunites a family, restores hope, and exposes the violence of the carceral state.
Our work does not end when someone walks out of prison.
People coming home after years of wrongful incarceration must rebuild from almost nothing. The Exoneree Network empowers people in freedom with comprehensive support and community.
We aim to dismantle, not invest in, the system that harms our community.
We recognize that wrongful convictions are the predictable outcome of a criminal legal system and carceral state shaped by white supremacy and capitalism. Therefore, our legislative and judicial policymaking efforts center freedom and investment in community.
Note: We are an independent 501c3 organization. We are not affiliated with and do not receive funding from the “Innocence Project,” a separate organization based in New York, or any other innocence organization.
Liberate
We Free People from Prison
We provide free forensic testing, investigation, experts, and an experienced legal team to exonerate innocent people and bring them home to their loved ones.
EMPOWER
We Uplift People in Freedom
Through the Exoneree Network, we empower our community members with housing, financial support, mental health care, job training, and more so families can heal and rebuild in freedom.
Explore the transformational work of the Exoneree Network:
EMPOWER
We Uplift People in Freedom
Through the Exoneree Network, we empower our community members with housing, financial support, mental health care, job training, and more so families can heal and rebuild in freedom.
Explore the transformational work of the Exoneree Network:
Dismantle
We Pursue Systemic Change
We use our expertise about the failures of the criminal legal system to pursue policies that prevent future tragedies, promote freedom, and support community-based solutions for public safety. We engage in judicial and legislative policymaking at the local level, where we believe we can make the greatest impact.
Judicial Policymaking
Judicial Policymaking is the term we use to describe the work we do to change court rules and “common law,” the law that comes from court decisions.
Our Amicus Work
Whenever the Court makes a decision in an individual case, it has the power to change the law for everyone. Our amicus work allows us to use our knowledge and expertise by filing “amicus briefs” that help shape these decisions by providing information on how the court’s decision might impact our community, prevent future tragedies, and create more freedom.
These amicus filings require significant time and expertise, and we often work in coalition with other groups (pictured) in order to make the biggest impact.
Just some of the many areas in which we have weighed in with amicus support include:
- Racial profiling
- Eyewitness misidentification
- Official misconduct
- Ensuring more paths to freedom
- Flawed or misleading forensics
- Wrongful convictions of immigrants
Read more our amicus work and impact on court decisions here.
Legislative Policymaking
Legislative Policymaking is the term we use to describe the work we do to influence policy with state legislatures.
How Our Legislative Work is Making an Impact
- Better Oversight: The creation of the Massachusetts Forensic Science Oversight Board, an entity on which we have a seat and that oversees forensic science, an area that has led to many wrongful convictions.
- Compensation for Exonerees: In addition, we have consistently fought for improvements in the compensation process and the amounts awarded to people wrongfully convicted for all they have suffered.
- Expanded Time Limits: Expanding the time for an innocent person to petition for a new trial where they've uncovered new evidence or new forensic evidence, key tools that can prove someone's innocence.
- Banning Police Deception: Pushing lawmakers to ban police officers from lying during interrogations to prevent false confessions.
- More Pathways to Freedom: Advocating for our community members aging over decades in prison with increased medical issues to have the chance to come home and receive the care they need and deserve.
Read more about the legislation we support and the impact we’ve had here.
Our Impact
A Year in the Fight
Over the past year, from June 2025 to 2026, these numbers represent the lives we’ve fought for, the communities we've supported, and the systemic wrongs we are working to dismantle.
The Scale of Need
300+
New requests for assistance each year
424
Open applications
108
Active investigations
Legal Action
18
Cases active in court
10,000
Pro bono hours
12
Amicus briefs filed
Community & Growth
88
Exonerees & family members supported
48
Speaking engagements & educational events
261
New supporters joined
The Real Lives Behind the Data
“One of the greatest things a person can do is help exonerate somebody. It makes me emotional when I think about the people who make freedom possible. I was serving a ‘one day to natural life’ sentence, meaning the system never had to let me go. Without the New England Innocence Project, innocent people like me would still be in prison. My story would have stopped there.”
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“The team that I had working for me, if I didn’t have that team, I wouldn’t be here. They are the most amazing people I’ve ever met. They fought hard for me. Even when things seemed that they weren’t going right, they dug in. They didn’t give up. That’s the dream team. I’m living the dream because I’m on this side of the wall. I’m free.”
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“If the Exoneree Network hadn't greeted me at the courthouse doorsteps the day I came home, I would have been homeless, penniless, and all alone... At every stage of my transition back into this new world, the NEIP/Exoneree Network has aided, assisted, and supported me — job, technical training courses, as well as assistance with housing vouchers.”
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Our Annual Impact Report
How We’re Moving the Needle
Every June, we take a moment to reflect on the progress we’ve made and recommit to the work ahead. Explore our interactive annual Impact Report and learn more about memorable moments and some of the many ways your support has been making an impact over the last year.
View Our Annual Impact Report
Donate
Your Support Means Everything
Supporting this work enables people who have suffered so much to build a future in freedom, become active in their communities, and create memorable moments—such as raising children, holding their grandchildren, and reuniting with their partners.