EDITORIAL
Innocence Project will strike blow for justice

It's exciting news that a national program aimed at freeing wrongfully convicted prisoners will set up an operation in Hawai'i, largely funded by a successful California model of the program.

Called the Innocence Project, this effort puts lawyers and law professors together with law students to review cases in which there is a substantial possibility that the individual was wrongly convicted.

The Hawai'i Innocence Project will work with students at the Richardson School of Law at the University of Hawai'i.

This will certainly add up to invaluable experience for law students.

But more importantly, it will contribute to greater overall confidence in Hawai'i's justice system.

The Innocence Project is anything but a nuisance operation that peppers the system with deleterious lawsuits and motions.

In fact, relatively few cases are accepted for review. The majority of cases reviewed result in a reversal or a retrial.

When the public sees the courts cooperating with this important effort, it gains confidence in the administration of law in the Islands and the overall fairness of our justice system.