First in a series featuring the Illinois Innocence Project at UIS during its 25th Anniversary.
The Illinois Innocence Project is marking a powerful milestone: 25 years of fighting wrongful convictions and reforming the justice system in Illinois. Executive Director Stephanie Kamel and co-founder Larry Golden share the project’s origins, impact, and evolving mission.
Illinois has earned a troubling reputation as the nation’s wrongful conviction capital, a reality that helped spark the project’s founding in 2001. As DNA evidence began exposing errors in the criminal justice system in the 1990s, it became clear that convictions were often built on unreliable evidence—false confessions, eyewitness misidentification, incentivized witnesses, and flawed forensic practices. Since then, the Illinois Innocence Project has helped 33 people regain their freedom, with 21 exonerations in just the past five years alone.
What makes the organization unique is its deep connection to the University of Illinois Springfield. It remains the only undergraduate-based Innocence Project in the country, engaging students directly in case review, investigation, and advocacy. Beyond freeing the wrongfully convicted, the project has expanded into prevention and reform—most notably through groundbreaking wrongful conviction training for law enforcement recruits statewide. More than 6,000 officers have now completed this training, a model being studied nationally and internationally.
The project is also pushing legislative reform, including fairer compensation for exonerees and protections for juveniles during interrogations. As the Illinois Innocence Project celebrates its 25th anniversary—with a major gala planned for November 7—it stands as a national leader and a local jewel, committed not only to correcting injustice, but to preventing it altogether.
Transcript pending.
