(From left) GN-IP clients Terry Olson, Sherman Townsend, Mike Hansen, and Robert Kaiser pose with former GN-IP legal director Julie Jonas (middle).
On Wednesday, October 24, the Great North Innocence Project hosted the 20th annual Benefit for Innocence. This year's theme was the Science of Justice and featured Minneapolis Foundation's Chief Impact Officer and SVP Chanda Smith Baker as emcee, and co-founder and special counsel of the Innocence Project Peter Neufeld as the keynote speaker. In-person guests gathered at Quincy Hall in Minneapolis and enjoyed forensic science-themed appetizer and dessert stations, took photos at a laboratory photo booth, enjoyed a signature "Toxicollins" cocktail, and tested their luck at the Wine Lab. During the program, in-person and virtual guests watched Robert Kaiser's story, heard from Peter Neufeld about how junk science leads to wrongful convictions and how we can work together to improve our use of science in the criminal legal system, and honored Julie Jonas, Alexandra Olson, Samuel Lockner, Megan Christner, and Mark Bradford for their incredible contributions to freeing the innocence from prison.
We exceeded our $75,000 goal and have nearly reached out $100,000 stretch goal during the program's Fund-a-Need. You can still give to help us reach our goal!