APPLICATION PROCESS
If you are interested in submitting your case for review, please read carefully:
The Innocence Project at UVA School of Law will consider accepting cases of wrongful convictions if three criteria are met:
the applicant must have been convicted of a crime in Virginia;
the conviction must be final, meaning that no further criminal proceedings or appeals are ongoing; and
the applicant is actually innocent of the crime of which he or she was convicted.
If those three criteria are met, our decision on whether or not to accept the case will be based upon the likelihood of us being able to prove your innocence, the availability of legal remedies, and our current caseload.
If your case meets all three criteria, please fill out the form below and include a brief message explaining how your case qualifies.
Successful completion of the form will display links to a screening questionnaire and waiver: please fill out these materials and return them to the address listed below.
We will review your submission and make a decision as to whether or not we can assist you.
Unfortunately, due to the number of requests for assistance we receive, we have a lengthy backlog of cases and it may take us a long period of time to complete the evaluation of your case. Your patience is greatly appreciated and we will notify you if we should need any further documents that you may have access to. We cannot guarantee that any documents that are sent to us will be returned. Please do not send any documents that you do not have copies of.
Although the Innocence Project at UVA School of Law endeavors to judge each case according to its own merits, we do not consider requests for sentence reduction/overcharge (i.e., the defendant wants to challenge the charge or length of sentence but does not claim innocence), or other similar kinds of non-innocence related post-conviction relief.
Please understand that the Innocence Project at UVA School of Law does not represent anyone until we enter into a formal written agreement to do so. We cannot promise to file anything on your behalf or take any action on your case before the evaluation process is complete.