The mission of the Tennessee Innocence Project is to free innocent people who remain incarcerated and to bring reform to the system responsible for their unjust imprisonment.

Imagine your loved one is charged with a crime they did not commit. 

You know this person. You know their character. You know they did not do what they are accused of. The allegations are horrifying and the risk if convicted at trial is high.

But, if they are 100 percent innocent, they will not be convicted, right?

Wrong.

Unfortunately, we know that the criminal justice system is imperfect and does not always get it right. Nationwide, since 1989, more than 3,400 people have been exonerated across the United States. Collectively, those actually innocent men and women who have been exonerated lost more than 30,000 years of their freedom while confined behind prison bars.

That’s where we come in.  

Launched in February 2019, as the first full-time innocence organization in the state, the Tennessee Innocence Project represents men and women making claims of actual innocence. The Tennessee Innocence Project has three primary areas of focus: 

1) Investigating and litigating actual innocence claims for those in Tennessee prisons to obtain exonerations, 

2) Training law students and attorneys about how to litigate these cases and how to prevent future wrongful convictions, and 

3) Effectuating changes that facilitate the discovery of wrongful convictions and remedies to the wrongfully convicted.

Over the past 5 years, the Tennessee Innocence Project has successfully obtained six exonerations. Our work has just begun. In 2023, we received 180 new applications from people convicted of crimes in over 50 Tennessee counties, and we continue to receive applications at a similar rate. This doesn’t include the countless calls and emails we receive from family members or friends seeking help for their loved ones. We carefully review each application we receive. Because our resources are limited, we must carefully select the most promising cases to handle.