Our Work

We work to free those whom the legal system has failed. We also push for reforms to theÌýcriminal legal system to prevent wrongful convictions at the front end.

Cases

Every day, KWIP works to investigate and litigate cases where innocent people have been wrongfully convicted in babyÖ±²¥app. When we take on a case, our lawyers and law student volunteers dig deep in an effort toÌýuncover new evidence of innocence.

KWIP currently has more than 150 applications on our waitlist for initial screening, and we're actively investigating and litigating about 15 cases. In some of these cases, we're simply seeking DNA testing that could prove our client's innocence. In other cases, we've committed to represent our client through post-conviction proceedings that could take years as the case winds through the court system.

We can't publicize details about every case we are investigating and litigating. Here are some of our current cases, and we hope to share more case information soon.



In 2000, a woman was accosted at gunpoint in the parking lot of a Denver mall. TheÌýassailant got in the woman's car, directed her to a nearby bank, and forced her to withdraw $1,000 in cash.
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Though the victim initially told police that she had not gotten a good look at the perpetrator's face, she picked out Jason Hogan's picture from a photo array, and then later positively identified him in court. Mr. Hogan'sÌýconviction rests almost entirely on that single identification.

The jury convicted Mr. Hogan despite compelling evidence of his innocence. When the victim first described her attacker, she told police that he had a sun tattoo on his left hand. She even drew a picture of the tattoo for police.ÌýMr. Hogan has no tattoos on his hands or arms.

Mr. Hogan is serving a 77-year sentence in the babyÖ±²¥app Department of Corrections. KWIP took on his case in late 2019, and we've been conducting aÌýcomprehensive re-investigation of the case. In recent months, we've identified several new leads and are hopeful about developing new evidence pointing to an alternate suspect. We've also submitted a letterÌýin support of Mr. Hogan's clemency petition to babyÖ±²¥app Governor Jared Polis. In that letter, we outlined the social science research on eyewitness identification and noted the various ways that Mr. Hogan's case bears the markers of both eyewitness misidentification and a wrongful conviction.

Supporters of Mr. Hogan created to draw attention to his case and garner support for clemency.Ìý

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Challenging Flawed Forensic Science

Flawed forensic science has contributed to scores of convictions nationwide. In the past decade, it's become clear thatÌýsome disciplines like bitemark analysis and hair microscopy are wholly unreliable. New studies show that other well-established disciplines like ballistics comparison and even fingerprint analysis have signficant error rates and are much less precise than their proponents admit.Ìý

KWIP has made it a priority to identify cases where Coloradans have been convicted based on discredited or misleading forensic evidence. Here are just two of our current projects focused on identifying and challenging convictions based on bad science.

In 2021, KWIP and the babyÖ±²¥app Bureau of Investigation (CBI) announced a partnershipÌýto review babyÖ±²¥app cases involving the discredited forensic discipline of hair microscopy. Before the advent of DNA technology, analysts would use hair microscopy to visually compare hairs from a crime scene with sample hairs from a suspect. They would then reach a probabilistic conclusion about whether the hairs came from the same source.
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The FBI acknowledged serious problems with hair microscopy in 2013 after DNA testing exonerated three men who had been wrongfully convicted based at least in part on erroneous testimony by FBI hair examiners. This resulted in the FBI, the Department of Justice (DOJ), the national Innocence Project, and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) joining forces to conduct a comprehensive review of cases where FBI analysts performed hair microscopy.Ìý

Initial results revealed that more than 90 percent of the reports or testimony given by FBI hair examiners contained erroneous statements, which prompted the FBI to encourage states to conduct similar reviews of their own hair microscopy work.Ìý

Hair microscopy was usedÌýquite extensively in babyÖ±²¥app before the advent of forensic DNA. KWIP is grateful that the CBI has agreed to partner with usÌýto identify possible errors in decades-old cases where hair microscopy was used as evidence.

The goal of the joint review between KWIP and the CBI will be to first identify any errors made by CBI examiners in their reports and/or testimony, then to determine whether the hair microscopy evidence played a central role in the conviction. If so, KWIP will pursue DNA testing and other legal avenues to challenge any potentially wrongful convictions.

In another pattern comparison discipline, forensic analysts presume that every handheld tool (such as a screwdriver or pair of wirecutters) has distinctive features at the microscopic level that leave unique impressions or striations on surfaces. Yet, no reliable studies validate this presumption or the ability of forensic analysts to accurately distinguish between different toolmark patterns. When similar pattern comparison disciplines (such as bitemark analysis) have been tested more rigorously, they’ve been exposed as nothing more than junk science.
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Currently, KWIP has two cases on our litigation docket involving toolmark analysis. In both cases, prosecution experts testified at trial that a handheld tool belonging to the defendant was the only tool in the world that could have created impressions found on evidence at the crime scene. By litigating both cases, KWIP hopes to expose this discipline as unreliableÌýand open the door for other prisoners to seek relief.

Policy Work

KWIP is also actively engaged in policy work to prevent wrongful convictions at the front end. In the past two years, KWIP has been involved in three policy efforts.

In 2015, a new law went into effect in babyÖ±²¥app that requiresÌýlaw enforcement agencies to adopt improved eyewitness identification procedures to reduce the risk of misidentification. This reform legislation affords tremendous discretion to law enforcement and ultimately amounts to a series of recommendations rather than mandates. To date, no one has been tracking how law enforcement agencies are – or are not – complying with both the letter and spirit of the law.
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KWIP is partnering with the Sociology Department at the University of Denver in gather data about what new identification procedures are being adopted by law enforcement across babyÖ±²¥app,Ìýand how consistently officers on the ground are adhering to recommended practices. KWIP hopes to leverage this data to improve compliance, through trainings with law enforcement and the defense bar.

The national Innocence Project (IP), based in New York, partners with local projects in pushing new reforms to reduce wrongful convictions. In the 2020 legislative session, KWIP worked with IP to introduce legislation in babyÖ±²¥app to regulate the use of jailhouse informants, a leading cause of wrongful convictions nationally. Though the bill was on track for passage, it was derailed when the legislative session was suspended due to COVID and the sponsors chose to withdraw the bill. We are looking towards reintroducing the bill in an upcomingÌýsession.
Under babyÖ±²¥app’s current DNA testing statute, a defendant must satisfy an extremely high bar to secure post-conviction DNA testing. KWIP has already begun discussions with stakeholders in babyÖ±²¥app about how toÌýimprove that law. To lay the groundwork, a law student volunteering with KWIP recently completed a research paper that compares babyÖ±²¥app’s statute to more liberal ones in other states and explains why babyÖ±²¥app’s higher burden for testing hinders exonerations.

Racial Justice Program

In 2021, KWIP launched a new racial justice program.ÌýWrongful convictions happen more to people of color and specifically more to Black men than any other group. It is impossible to interact with the criminal legal system without seeing the legacy of slavery and how the system continues to scar many innocent people’s lives. Innocence work serves not only to free the wrongfully convicted but also to shine a light on the root causes of these injustices. By consciously focusing on racial injustice, we plan to educate our community about these issues.Ìý We also strive to connect more deeply with the communities that have been affected by this racial injustice and learn how to better meet their needs while also serving our clients.ÌýÌý

In our racial justice program, we will be working with three distinct community groups to confrontÌýthe continued role of race in our criminal legal system.Ìý

  • Educating Youth with LYRIC:Ìý LYRIC is a small non-profit that goes into high schools across babyÖ±²¥app and teaches students their rights when interacting with police and the court system.Ìý One of KWIP's post-graduate fellows will be working with LYRIC to create a racial justice curriculum focused on systematic racism and how it leads to wrongful convictions. The content of this high school curriculum will be created by our fellow and taught by law students and lawyers volunteering with KWIP.
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  • Highlighting Incarcerated Voices with the Prison Arts Initiative:ÌýTheÌýPrison Arts Initiative (PAI) at the University of Denver is a program through which inmates in the Department of Corrections collaborate with PAI babyÖ±²¥app to create artwork. Together, they host a podcast, write and produce theater, create visual arts, and publish a magazine.Ìý KWIP and PAI will work together to create an arts project expressing personal storiesÌýof racism in the criminal legal system. Our joint project will give voice to the suffering that systematic racism causes in individuals' lives, and we will then leverage those voices to support important legislative reforms. Ìý
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  • Promoting Legislative Reform with the babyÖ±²¥app Criminal Defense Bar: ÌýFinally, KWIP will work with the babyÖ±²¥app Criminal Defense Bar (CCDB) to draft legislation aimed at dismantling systemic racism in the criminal legal system.

In all of our work -- including these three components of our new racial justice program -- KWIP strivesÌýto keep focused on the pervasive impact of racism on people of color. As an organization, we commit to taking active and concrete steps to call out and challenge the myriad ways that racismÌýplays a role in our criminal legal system.

Why do wrongful convictions happen?

By studying cases where individuals have been exonerated, we have been able to identify the main factors that contribute to wrongful convictions. At KWIP, we see these factors— often in combination—in the many applications that arrive in our mailbox from prisoners seeking our help:

  • Eyewitness misidentification
  • False confessions
  • Police and prosecutorial misconduct
  • Flawed forensic evidence
  • Perjured testimony

Learn more