This episode four of the Improving the System season of the National Institute of Justice's (NIJ's) Just Science podcast series is an interview with Sarah Chu, Senior Adviser on Forensic Science Policy at the Innocence Project, who discusses the Project's efforts to end wrongful conviction.
Background information for the interview notes that there are currently 2,500 cases on the National Registry of Exonerations. Organizations such as the Innocence Project are committed to putting an end to wrongful convictions. They rely on people familiar with both policy and forensic science, such as Sarah Chu. After reviewing Sarah Chu's educational and professional background, the interview focuses on her role as a forensic scientist in critically reviewing potentially wrongful convictions that involve an analysis of various legal and scientific factors that may have produced a wrongful conviction. Sarah Chu's role is to determine whether various factors related to evidence based on forensic science were accurate and reliable in a particular case. The interview also focuses on how lessons learned from wrongful convictions can contribute to reforms that improve quality control and the development of standards for how forensic analyses are conducted and presented in expert testimony.