Pennsylvania non-profit working to exonerate those convicted of crimes they did not commit

The Spark

The Pennsylvania Innocence Project is a non-profit organization working to exonerate those convicted of crimes they did not commit, prevent innocent people from being prosecuted and convicted, and to help those wrongfully convicted transition to freedom.

Nilam Sanghvi is the Legal Director and oversees all of the casework from the PA Innocence Project.

“I worked for private law firms for a long time. And when the opportunity to come do this work arose, it's almost how can you say no? It's, you know, that people just should not be in prison if they're innocent. The law is incredibly complex and technical. So, we felt, you know, this is really a place where you need a strong legal team and it's intellectually stimulating. But most important, you know, we really hope that we're giving folks a diligent look at their case that they may never have gotten in the ten, 20, 30 years that they've been dealing with the criminal legal system, “said Sanghvi.

Pennsylvania is one of 13 states that provides no compensation or services to those who have been wrongfully convicted. Blanca Castro is a reentry social worker at the non-profit. She provides reintegration services to clients after they are legally represented.

“When transitioning home for their release, they really just have the clothes on their back. And this is why reentry services is so important for our clients. And, you know, without those services, it really makes it difficult for them to have a smooth transition home. And so, we see a lot of, you know, the system failing our clients that way as well without providing any sort of compensation or services, “said Castro.

The organization has received almost 8,000 letters asking for help in the 15 years since opening in 2008. Technology plays a huge role in investigations that the Pennsylvania Innocence Project cases.

“When you think of innocence work, you think a lot of DNA testing, you hear a lot about DNA testing was done and showed this person didn't do it. And that's also something that didn't exist right in the 70s and 80s, but now can be brought to bear to try to determine whether somebody was involved in a crime or not. So, keeping up with advancing technology and using it to look back at old cases is a really important part of our work, “said Sanghvi.

Yahya Moore is currently a paralegal at the Pa Innocence Project who served 27 years for a wrongful conviction. While he was in prison, he studied law and worked as a legal aid. Once he returned home, he wanted to assist others wrongfully convicted.

“When you're studying the law and you're finding your case and you know that you're right by law, you know that the law is on your side. But you put in a petition, and you put in one after another after another. You still get denied. Right. And so, when you finally come up with an opportunity and I call it an opportunity because for so long in the city of Philadelphia, so many people weren't getting any relief. And so, it was it was so far from few in between that it was almost you could actually say it was nonexistent. And so, after piling in a petition after petition after petition and you're getting no relief, were you when someone comes up against an opportunity to say, okay, well, I take a deal. To get out or do I continue down this long journey? Appellant In these petitions, right. When? I may not get any relief. And so many people who are innocent were apt to go in and just take the deal to get it over with and so they could go home and start their lives, “said Moore.

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