Aaron Michael Howard, who was released from prison in 2008 after serving 18 years in prison for a murder he did not commit, joined community members at a church in Southeast Washington D.C. for the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project’s first ever legal clinic last week.   Residents of the Southeast and Southwestern quadrants of the District of Columbia, as well as Prince George’s County, Maryland, attended the clinic at Matthews Memorial Baptist Church. Those in attendance learned more about MAIP’s work to correct wrongful convictions and had the opportunity to tell MAIP staff members and law students from the Innocence Project…

Thanks to the work of a legal team led by MAIP Board Member Barry Pollack, a New York man who spent seventeen years behind bars for a murder he did not commit was exonerated last week. Despite the lack of any forensic evidence, Fernando Bermudez was convicted of the 1991 shooting of then sixteen-year-old Raymond Blount outside a New York City nightclub.  Blount was shot on the street shortly after punching another teenager, Efraim Lopez, in the Marc Ballroom near Manhattan’s Union Square.  Lopez testified at trial as a cooperating witness, implicating Bermudez as the shooter. In the years after…

Edward Green became the first person in the District of Columbia to be exonerated by DNA evidence. On July 3, 1987, a woman was raped on a footbridge in Southeast DC. On August 5, 1987, a second victim managed to escape a similar rape attempt and alert the police. After being arrested near the scene of the crimes, Green was charged with rape and assault with intent to rape. At trial, the prosecution’s case hinged upon the testimony of the two victims, both of whom positively identified Green in court. One of the victims also selected Greene out of a…