Our mission is to ensure that no person remains in prison when forensic evidence proving their innocence is sitting on the desks of police and prosecutors. And to guarantee that victims of violent crimes will never go without closure when investigators have the evidence necessary to solve their cases.
Law enforcement forensic databases, particularly the Combined DNA Index System ("CODIS") program, generate huge amounts of information used for solving crimes. But a lack of adequate procedures means that often this information isn't used to its full potential. Specifically, CODIS hits are frequently ignored when they reveal the innocence of a person who was wrongfully convicted (in other words, cases that were solved but incorrectly), and also when they relate to cold cases that are still unsolved but not under active investigation.
The data currently available indicates that adopting proper policies for the handling of CODIS hits nationwide would identify dozens of wrongful convictions every year, help solve thousands of previously unsolved violent crimes, all while requiring minimal resources and no additional funding. Yet the specialized and technical nature of DNA databases means this issue has, thus far, avoided attention.
The Accurate Justice Project was founded in 2025 to change that. Our mission is to ensure that no person remains in prison when forensic (and particularly DNA) evidence proving their innocence is sitting on the desks of police and prosecutors, and to guarantee that the victims of violent crimes will never go without closure when police have the evidence necessary to solve their cases.