Santa Clara University

Law Briefs

NBC Highlights the Work of the Innocence Project

The Northern California Innocence Project (NCIP) at Santa Clara University was featured on a one-hour special Dateline presentation of John Stoll’s case on Oct. 22, 2004. Keith Morrison interviewed several staff members at the School of Law in the Strong Commons on Sept. 9, 2004, in preparation for the show.

For two years, students and staff at the NCIP, in collaboration with students and staff at California Western School of Law, worked to exonerate John Stoll, who was convicted in 1985 of having molested six young boys in Bakersfield, Calif. The NCIP showed how the questioning techniques used by law enforcement had led to false testimony by the witnesses and resulted in a conviction based on unreliable testimony. After a lengthy hearing in Bakersfield, the court reversed Stoll’s conviction.

For more information on the Northern California Innocence Project, see www.scu.edu/law/ncip.