Allowing Indigenous Discourses on Wrongful Convictions to Take Root—Mission Statement and Introduction of the Taiwan Innocence Project

Origins

The Taiwan Association for Innocence (hereinafter referred to as the "Taiwan Innocence Project") was initiated in 2011 by university professors, lawyers, physicians, clergy members, and other professionals in related fields, with Attorney Lo Ping-cheng serving as its current chairperson. The concept of the Taiwan Innocence Project is derived from the Innocence Project in the United States. Established in 1992 by Barry C. Scheck and Peter J. Neufeld, two professors at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University in New York, the Innocence Project aims to exonerate the wrongfully convicted whose innocence can be proven through DNA testing technology.

The successful model of the New York Innocence Project inspired law schools and law firms across various states to follow suit. With the accumulation of wrongful conviction cases proven by DNA evidence and the ongoing research into wrongful convictions, the notion that "wrongful convictions do indeed occur" has gradually permeated the legal practice community. The United States began using qualitative and quantitative case studies to clarify the causes of wrongful convictions. This not only expanded the scope of cases accepted by the Innocence Project from DNA testing to wrongful convictions caused by forensic errors and misconduct by participants in criminal proceedings, but also enabled the amendment of criminal procedures and internal institutional reforms within investigative agencies. In recent years, Innocence Projects across various states have formed a larger alliance known as "The Innocence Network," whose members not only share resources but also exchange organizational management and rescue experiences through annual conferences.

Objectives

The Taiwan Innocence Project is just getting started, and over the next two to three years, the association plans to focus its scope of work primarily on the following four areas:

1. Providing relief for truly innocent individuals who have exhausted ordinary legal remedies, but whose convictions may have resulted from erroneous scientific evidence and severe violations of due process.
   The primary mission of the Taiwan Innocence Project is to provide relief for cases of actual innocence that have exhausted ordinary remedies, yet may have stemmed from erroneous scientific evidence and grave violations of due process. Aside from a full-time executive director who assumed office in early 2013, all other attorneys serve pro bono. They review case files to produce case reports, which are then evaluated by a case review committee to determine whether to accept the case. The Taiwan Innocence Project has currently begun working on the relief of three cases: the Cheng Hsing-Tse case (homicide), the Lu Chin-Kai case (compulsory sexual assault resulting in homicide), and the Wang Chi-Cheng case (homicide). Furthermore, because wrongful convictions frequently originate from suspects being constrained by financial limitations during criminal proceedings and thus unable to obtain adequate and effective counsel—leaving them completely helpless after their convictions become final—the Taiwan Innocence Project will not only passively accept cases in the future, but will also enter correctional facilities to proactively reach out to inmates and uncover wrongful conviction cases.
   
2. Promoting amendments to laws concerning retrials and extraordinary appeals
   In our country, once a criminal case becomes final, the legal thresholds for reopening the proceedings are extremely stringent. Taking the ongoing Lu Chin-Kai case as an example, even new DNA test results remain insufficient to persuade the court to open retrial proceedings. If this situation continues, wrongful conviction relief will be like shouting at a passing train; and if wrongful conviction relief fails to gain recognition from the judicial system, introspection and reform within the criminal justice system will remain empty talk. In addition to advocating for legislative amendments concerning retrials and extraordinary appeals, the Taiwan Innocence Project will also emulate European continental countries like the United Kingdom and Norway by promoting the establishment of a Criminal Cases Review Commission. This would empower an independent body outside the court to determine whether to reopen judicial proceedings, thereby preventing the conflict of interest inherent in the judiciary acting as "both player and referee"—an institutional design contrary to human expectations that obstructs the realization of individual justice. Furthermore, the Taiwan Innocence Project will plan training courses for defense counsel in extraordinary remedy procedures to strengthen attorneys' capabilities in post-conviction relief proceedings.
   
3. Analyzing the causes of wrongful convictions and reviewing the criminal procedure system
   The formation of wrongful convictions is often not caused by malice on the part of law enforcement personnel, but rather by systemic flaws. In the past, our country lacked discussions and cross-disciplinary research regarding wrongful convictions. For instance, issues that have long been hotly debated in Europe, the Americas, and Japan—such as "Why do suspects make false confessions even when not subjected to torture?", "Why do nearly 80% of wrongful convictions involve erroneous eyewitness identifications?", and "The high unreliability of scientific evidence such as lie detector tests, voiceprints, and toolmark comparisons"—have all lacked localized empirical research in Taiwan. This leaves legal practitioners firmly believing in confessions and eyewitness identifications, while being unable to understand, let alone challenge or question, junk science that cannot withstand scientific scrutiny. Consequently, voiceprint analysis, which had already disappeared from U.S. courts by the late 1990s, is still deemed admissible by our courts; and lie detectors are regarded by law enforcement as powerful investigative tools. Moreover, aside from homicide and compulsory sexual assault cases—which easily leave behind blood or bodily fluids to facilitate overturning a case—whether other types of criminal cases are susceptible to wrongful convictions has not been explored in relevant discussions in our country. In the future, the Taiwan Innocence Project will introduce foreign literature on related topics, plan case studies on domestic wrongful conviction cases, and host seminars to construct a localized discourse on the causes of wrongful convictions and review the flaws in our criminal procedures, thereby driving systemic reform.
   
4. Collaborating with law schools to instill foundational education for the prevention of wrongful convictions
   According to empirical research on wrongful convictions in the United States, "poor attorney performance" and "judicial negligence" are two of the six major causes of wrongful convictions. Both of these causes are closely intertwined with the lack of discourse on wrongful convictions within legal education. Consequently, organizations dedicated to wrongful conviction relief in the United States are often closely connected with law schools. Taking Duke Law School as an example, its Wrongful Conviction Clinic boasts an annual budget as high as NT$40 million and is staffed by two full-time professors who lead students in screening, reviewing, and taking on cases. Allowing students to encounter real cases during their studies is an invaluable experience for law school students. More importantly, student participation provides wrongful conviction relief efforts with a large and high-quality labor pool, enabling full re-investigations of cases. Although the Taiwan Innocence Project lacks such massive resources at the present stage, it will still attempt to collaborate with law schools. This year, it will participate in the litigation practice course at the National Chiao Tung University Institute of Science and Law, using the Cheng Hsing-tse case as teaching material to transmit the concept of wrongful convictions within the law school. Future plans also include cooperating with law schools on internship programs, giving law school students the opportunity to cultivate an awareness that "wrongful convictions do indeed occur" through participation in case relief, thereby laying a solid foundation for the relief and prevention of wrongful convictions.
   

Expectations

In the past, groups such as the Judicial Reform Foundation have already been actively engaged in wrongful conviction relief in our country. However, the exoneration of individual cases is insufficient to drive systemic reform. The most important purpose of establishing the Taiwan Innocence Project is to accumulate case relief data to study the causes of wrongful convictions in Taiwan and formulate preventive strategies, thereby allowing indigenous discourses on wrongful convictions to take root.