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On Tuesday, October 4, in recognition of International Wrongful Conviction Day, the Hawaiʻi Innocence Project will challenge audience members to see how well they can identify a possible suspect in a mock exercise at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa’s William S. Richardson School of Law.

Eyewitness Identification aims to demonstrate pitfalls in the standard technique that has been used in courtrooms for decades. Documentation has begun to show that faulty eyewitness identification accounts for as much as 75 percent of all wrongful convictions, according to Innocence Project data.

The Eyewitness Identification event is scheduled from 12 noon to 1:15 p.m. in Classroom 2. Lunch is available in the courtyard and donations are welcome. Similar programs are taking place across the nation and around the world.

More about The Hawaiʻi Innocence Project

The Hawaiʻi Innocence Project is run by faculty members at the William S. Richardson School of Law, with assistance from community attorneys. In 2011, using advanced DNA testing technology, the Hawaiʻi project succeeded in having Alvin Francis Jardine exonerated after he spent almost 20 years in prison for a rape and burglary he consistently maintained that he did not commit. The national organization has freed several hundred wrongly incarcerated people by using advanced DNA testing.

As part of the national Innocence Project network, Faculty Specialist Kenneth Lawson and Associate Dean Ronette Kawakami head the project and work with other attorneys on cases in Hawaiʻi.

“Our faculty and students, along with our cooperating attorneys, deserve great admiration for their passionate, tireless work to free those who have been unjustly imprisoned,” said School of Law Dean Avi Soifer,

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