Newly-Launched Los Angeles Innocence Project Joins National Network

Andrew Wilson spent 32 years in prison for a crime he did not commit.

With compensation from his wrongful conviction, Wilson is setting a high bar for giving back in order to fund the Los Angeles Innocence Project (LAIP) at Cal State-Los Angeles. A group of conviction lawyers and wrongfully convicted individuals will staff the Los Angeles program, one of more than 70 Innocence Projects worldwide. LAIP is unique with it's partnership alongside an academic forensics program; the California Institute of Forensic Science and the School of Criminal Justice and Criminology at California State.

A 2016 report found that wrongful convictions cost California taxpayers at least $221 million between 1989 and 2012. A 2018 report found that parolees nationwide had officially spent more than 20,000 years in prison for crimes they did not commit.

“I was compensated for my wrongful conviction and incarceration, and I’m proud to use that money as a founding donor to the Innocence Project of Los Angeles,” Wilson said. “The attorneys who helped me are working to free many innocent inmates in California prisons and prevent future wrongful convictions. No one should have to go through what I and my family went through."

Two other wrongfully convicted Californians, Franky Carrillo and Jane Dorotik, will serve as policy advisors.

To read more about Andrew Wilson, Franky Carrillo, Jane Dorotik, and the creation of the Los Angeles Innocence Project, visit the Law Glitz blog. To learn more about the Innocence Project, visit their website.