Barbara O’Brien is a Professor of Law at the MSU College of Law at Michigan State University. And she’s editor of the National Registry of Exonerations. 

The National Registry of Exonerations records exonerations won by exonerators such as Innocence Organizations, Conviction Integrity Units, and law school clinics. 

The registry captures statistics and analyzes trends, which are used by social justice advocates, legislative policymakers, legal scholars and researchers, and the media.

The second week or April is National Crime Victims’ Rights Week.

Conversation Highlights:

(0:53) - What’s your background? How long have you been at MSU Law, and what attracted you here?

(1:33) - What is an exoneration?

(3:19) - How did you get interested and involved in tracking exonerations?

(4:41) - Why was the National Registry of Exonerations formed and why is it important to document annual exoneration cases? How many cases have you tracked to date?

(7:33) - How much work goes intro tracking exonerations? Can you walk us through that process?

(9:47) - Every year, you release a report. What were some of the key findings from the 2024 report?

(11:59) - Why should people care about this work? How has it helped lead to justice for wrongly convicted Americans?

(15:43) - Has our criminal justice and legal system gotten better at investigating and bringing justice for wrongly convicted Americans?

(19:54) - Are you able to share any of the applications of the report? Or in other words, are law firms, policy makers, or advocacy organizations using the registry?

(21:46) - Where can people connect with the registry?