A New Innocence Project
Founded in 2011, the Chicago Innocence Project ("ChIP") is a nonprofit organization devoted to investigative reporting of wrongful convictions. ChIP engages college students, community residents, private investigators and journalists in reporting, exposing and remedying mistakes by the criminal justice system.
Like its predecessor, the Medill Innocence Project, ChIP was established by Northwestern University Professor David Protess. Under Protess's tutelage, Medill students uncovered evidence that freed 12 innocent prisoners, five of them from death row, igniting a debate about the death penalty that led to its abolition in Illinois.
"A system that depends on young journalism students is flawed," former Gov. George H. Ryan said in an announcement that he had cleared death row. The governor also praised Protess for being a teacher who has "poured his heart and soul" into helping his students free innocent prisoners.
As President of ChIP, Protess is continuing the tradition of hard-hitting investigative reporting that he began at Northwestern. But ChIP is unique in several respects:
AUTONOMOUS. The nonprofit is independent of any one university and functions autonomously of powerful institutions.
DIVERSE. Students are drawn from universities throughout the midwest that provide internship credit for experiential learning. Priority is given to schools with strong diversity policies.
INVOLVED. Residents of communities that particularly suffer from the problem of wrongful convictions participate in the reporting process. Among the residents are exonerated prisoners, who are trained as citizen investigative reporters.
"Nonprofit investigative reporting groups are the wave of the future," Protess said, citing as examples ProPublica, the Better Government Association, The Center for Public Integrity, The Texas Tribune, the Voice of San Diego and The Center for Investigative Reporting. "ChIP joins their ranks while becoming the first group of its kind to solely report about the problem of wrongful convictions."
ChIP is a registered nonprofit charitable organization. Its Board of Directors has obtained tax exempt status from the IRS. Contributions are tax deductible. Donations may be sent to The Chicago Innocence Project, 205 West Monroe Street, Suite 315, Chicago, IL 60606.