Manhattan DA Creates Unit to Prevent Wrongful Convictions

New York, NY —

Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance is setting up a "Conviction Integrity" unit in his office to help prevent wrongful convictions. One of the unit's outside advisors will be Barry Scheck, who directs the Innocence Project -- a national group that helps exonerate wrongfully convicted people.

Scheck says New York doesn't have a particularly troubling wrongful conviction rate, compared to other states, but it's time to create a unit like this.

"I think it's just part of an overall movement that's going on across the country with prosecutors who are aware that these mistakes can happen, and there are better ways that we can go about evaluating them to make sure that we get it right," Scheck says.

The unit will re-examine closed cases where claims of innocence have been made, and also create standard procedures for new cases to prevent wrongful convictions.