The following story was published by the Illinois Times on Aug. 27, 2026.

The Illinois Innocence Project at University of Illinois Springfield has freed 34 innocent people who were convicted and imprisoned in Illinois for crimes they did not commit. Collectively, they lost 797 years of freedom. There are innocence organizations in 10 other countries and more than 60 in the U.S., but IIP is the only one based at an undergraduate institution. Most are located in large metropolitan areas and associated with law schools. IIP is also the only one that conducts statewide wrongful conviction training for police training academies. 

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