Seattle Times Give Praise to Innocence Project Northwest

An editorial in yesterday’s

Seattle Times

praised the efforts made by attorneys and law students at the

Innocence Project Northwest Clinic

at the University of Washington School Of Law in their pursuit to overturn a King County man’s wrongful conviction.

 

Brandon Olebar was convicted of a robbery and burglary he did not commit and spent the past decade in prison as a result of flawed identification procedures and faulty eyewitness testimony. He was released late last month after compelling new evidence uncovered by two law students, Nikki Carsley and Kathleen Klineall, and attorney Fernanda Torres was presented to the chief criminal deputy prosecutor.

 

The editorial credits the organization’s policy director, Lara Zarowsky, with drafting legislation that became effective in July 2013 that in turn allowed Olebar to see compensation for his wrongful conviction.

 

The

Seattle Times

writes: “The work of the project, and the Legislature’s process to review wrongful convictions and make compensation available, represents genuine respect for the pursuit of justice. Political and legal values that acknowledge grievous errors, and literally pay for mistakes, combine to give an innocent man a measure of his life back.”

 

Read the

full editorial

.