If you meet all of the above-listed criteria, request assistance by sending a letter, emailing, or calling our office directly. The next step is to complete our Initial Screening Questionnaire.  The Initial Screening Questionnaire must be completed by the person convicted (if they are able) and returned to our offices via USPS mail or email:

New England Innocence Project
Attn: Intake Team
1035 Cambridge St., Suite 28A
Cambridge, MA 02141

E-mail: intake@newenglandinnocence.org

Phone: 617-945-0762

You can also send a letter or email, or call our office directly, to ask questions or request that we send someone a copy of the initial application.

Our application process involves two different questionnaires. The first is called the Initial Screening Questionnaire, which helps us understand the basic facts of your case in writing. If we move forward with your case screening, we will provide you with a second questionnaire called the General Questionnaire. The General Questionnaire is more comprehensive and may include supplemental forms depending on the details of your conviction. We use these questionnaires to complete a preliminary screening of your case, and all are critical for our review. Your application is not complete until you finish and return these questionnaires.

No, the New England Innocence Project does not handle civil cases.

Currently, we can review and send correspondence, including applications for assistance, in English and Spanish. We will make every effort to provide translation for other languages as needed, but this may require additional time. 

• NEIP reviews claims of innocence from people found guilty of crimes they did not commit in any of the six New England states. These states are: Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island. 

• We accept ALL cases, including those where DNA testing is not possible. 

• If the case went to trial, we can only review convictions after the convictions are affirmed on direct appeal.

• We review cases for people who do not currently have an attorney working on their behalf

• Because of the number of applications we receive, we prioritize cases where the person is incarcerated, though we will consider applications from those who are not currently incarcerated.

We know navigating the criminal legal system can be very challenging.  Unfortunately, the New England Innocence Project can only take your case if you are not currently represented by an attorney. In addition, due to the high volume of requests for assistance and our limited staff and resources, we can only offer post-conviction legal support after a thorough, lengthy screening process to determine whether our organization is best suited to represent you. Even if we review your case, we cannot guarantee that we can represent you. 

We encourage you to communicate with your attorney or a legal services provider about the potential consequences of having your attorney withdraw from representation.

If you have questions about rights that may be subject to statutes of limitations, you should also contact a lawyer or another legal services provider.

If you have additional questions, we encourage you to call our Intake team at 617-945-0762, so we can better determine eligibility.

If you most recently applied for assistance before 2010, we encourage you to reapply, as our organization has since expanded its eligibility requirements and now screens ALL cases, including those that do not involve DNA evidence. 

In addition, if we’ve reviewed and closed your case, please write to us if there is new evidence to share in your case. We will re-evaluate your case in light of this new information. If your case was closed because you were represented by an attorney at the time, but you are no longer represented, please request and complete a new Initial Screening Questionnaire to re-initiate the application process.

NEIP understands that the application process can be lengthy. Wherever possible, we will share any documentation that we may have from a prior application of yours to help you complete your new application. 

• NEIP’s review process happens in two phases: a preliminary screening stage and an advanced screening stage. NEIP’s preliminary screening stage can take years and involves collecting a completed application and conducting an initial review to determine if NEIP can devote additional resources for further investigation. 

• If a case is moved forward, NEIP’s advanced screening stage begins with additional document collection and analysis of an applicant’s case file. During the course of this analysis, our legal team communicates with applicants and prior counsel to build historical knowledge of the case and identify potential avenues for investigation. This process is subject to the facts of a case, and it can take several years to determine whether the New England Innocence Project is able to pursue litigation.

• The New England Innocence Project has a small staff and limited resources. As one of the few innocence organizations in the region, we are working to review hundreds of cases. 

• Conducting a preliminary screening in each case is time-consuming, but we want to ensure that everyone’s case is carefully and fully considered. We know it can take years to complete our process, but we are working as quickly and thoroughly as possible. 

• We review cases in the order in which completed two-part applications are received. Due to the high volume of requests we receive and to ensure a fair and thorough review of all cases, we are typically unable to expedite the review process.

Once we receive an initial request for assistance, we will treat all future communications and information provided to us as confidential and/or privileged, and, as such, we are only able to provide updates directly to the applicant.  We cannot provide case updates to family members or the general public.