Except for the first three weeks and the last  three weeks, the order in which the topics for weeks 4 through 11 are actually covered, and assignments made, is subject to change

Week 1: Introduction – Introduction to wrongful convictions and The Midwestern Innocence Project – Where are we today – Overview of process used to date – How the class will be conducted – What will be required of students – Review "questionnaire" 

Week 2: Eyewitness Identification – The law – How memory works and the weaknesses of identification testimony – Admissibility of expert testimony – Investigating cases involving eyewitness testimony

Week 3: Investigation of wrongful conviction claims

Week 4:  Snitches and Informers  – How use of informers and snitches contributes to wrongful convictions – What needs to be done – How to investigate cases involving informer testimony – Safeguards for the future

In the second hour, cases will be distributed and students will meet with their Teams.

Week 5:  Police and Prosecutorial Misconduct – Nondisclosure of discoverable materials by police or prosecutor – Nondisclosure of exonerating evidence – How to look for missing material in case files – Improperly induced guilty pleas. 

We will also discuss progress on cases and determine whether eyewitness identification, snitch testimony or police or prosecutorial misconduct appears as a factor in any of the cases under review.

Week 6:  Ineffective Assistance of Counsel – How does bad lawyering contribute to wrongful convictions? -- What is legal ineffectiveness (the law) – How to spot a failure of competency in cases examined -- Assess whether ineffective assistance of counsel is likely a factor in any of the cases under review

Week 7:  False Confessions and Evidentiary Barriers - The causes and effects of false confessions –  How to identify false confessions –  Evidentiary restrictions on the defense that contribute to wrongful convictions --  -- Assess whether either false confessions or evidentiary limitations were likely a factor in any of the cases under review

Week 8:  DNA Evidence – What can it do? – What can it NOT do? – Difference from traditional serology – Right of access to DNA testing – Privacy issues   

Week 9: Junk Science – How to tell junk science from emerging science and "good" science – Weaknesses inherent in even respectable crime laboratory techniques – What does Daubert and Kumho Tire require? – How to obtain experts for the defense? – How to evaluate cases --  Assess whether DNA or junk science is a factor in the cases under review and, if so, what avenues should be pursued

Week 10: A Primer On Post Conviction Remedies - Challenges of and strategies for obtaining judicial release of innocent individuals  -- Assess what avenues of relief may be open to inmates in cases under review