GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Monday is International Wrongful Conviction Day.
Established by the Innocence Network, the day celebrated its tenth year in 2023.
The network is made up of a group of organizations that offer legal and investigative assistance to those who believe they were wrongfully convicted.
The Cooley Innocence Project is one of those organizations. The project has led to the exoneration of eight people since it was created 20 years ago.
They hosted a panel Monday allowing four exonerees to tell their stories.
Director Tracey Brame says local prosecutors have launched more "conviction integrity units."
Brame says one of those units in Wayne County helped overturned the wrongful convictions of three dozen people.
There are no services like this in Kent County, and Brame says there’s still more that needs to be done.
“When you're talking about innocence cases, you know, we want to collectively — defense attorneys and prosecutors offices and courts in general — to look beyond winning and losing and to look at the issue of: Is there someone incarcerated that shouldn't be?” says Brame. “We're starting to see a shift in mindset more and more.”
The Cooley Law School Innocence Project says about 975 innocent people are incarcerated annually.
