The Illinois Innocence Project (IIP) is dedicated to releasing innocent men and women imprisoned in Illinois for crimes they did not commit. In 2014, the IIP assisted in the passage of a law to allow post-conviction DNA and other forensic testing in guilty plea cases under 725 ILCS 5/116-3. The IIP has since received a grant from the United States Department of Justice for DNA testing in guilty plea cases in which the defendant may be innocent.

Because this change to 116-3 is so recent, many people incarcerated as a result of guilty pleas do not realize they can request this testing, nor do they know about our grant funding. So we are asking you, their attomeys, to think back on your criminal law careers, focusing on serious felony cases. Did you have a client who you thought was likely innocent, but took a plea for any number of reasons (avoiding a harsher sentence, a false confession, etc.)?

Please send us information on any serious felony case in which the client took a guilty plea and might be innocent. Even if you do not believe there is any potential DNA to test, we would still like to know about the case for future grant applications. Please feel free to contact Lauren Myerscough-Mueller via email at  lmyersc2@uis.edu, or phone at (217) 206-6051. If you can only remember a name, please send that and we can figure out the rest. We appreciate your time and attention.