Santa Clara University’s Northern California
Innocence Project (NCIP) will host its inaugural Justice for All Awards
Dinner on March 27, honoring individuals for their work on behalf of the
wrongfully convicted. The awards dinner comes on the eve of the 2008
Innocence Network Conference which will be held at Santa Clara
University March 28–30.
“The Justice for All Awards Dinner provides
the opportunity for our supporters to meet the exonerees whose lives
they have touched, hear their stories, and see firsthand why the
Innocence Project fights tirelessly for justice,”
said Kathleen “Cookie”
Ridolfi, director of the Northern California Innocence Project.
Inaugural Justice for All Awards Dinner, March 27: This event
will be held at the Fairmont Hotel in San Jose on March 27 and will
honor five individuals for their work on behalf of the wrongfully
convicted. Award recipients are Frank Quattrone, NCIP’s
Advisory Board Chair; John Van de Kamp, chair of the California
Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice; exoneree Antoine Goff;
and Dana Nachman and Don Hardy, local documentary filmmakers who worked
closely with the NCIP on their film “An
American Witch Hunt.” Attorney Barry Scheck
will give the keynote address.
2008 Innocence Network Conference, March 28–30:
The national conference will take place this year at Santa Clara
University, home base of the NCIP. The three-day conference brings
together hundreds of people who work against wrongful convictions.
Among those attending the conference are attorneys, educators, civic and
business leaders, and exonerated individuals who have been wrongfully
convicted and imprisoned. John Van de Kamp, former state attorney
general, will participate in the conference, along with speakers
representing Innocence Projects from Hawaii, Wisconsin, Connecticut,
Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia, Ohio, New York, and New Orleans,
including the co-founders of the first Innocence Project, professors
Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld of Cardozo School of Law. Conference
sessions are closed to the media. Photos will be available following
the conference. For more information about the conference or photos,
please contact Amy Kennedy at 408-551-3000 x6189 or aekennedy@scu.edu.
Hearing on the Death Penalty, March 28: The California Commission
on the Fair Administration of Justice will be holding its third and
final public hearing at Santa Clara University from 9:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
The hearing will address the fair administration of the death penalty in
California. Visit the commission’s Web site
at www.ccfaj.org for more information.
About Santa Clara University
Santa Clara University, a comprehensive Jesuit, Catholic university
located 40 miles south of San Francisco in California’s
Silicon Valley, offers its 8,685 students rigorous undergraduate
curricula in arts and sciences, business, and engineering, plus master’s
and law degrees and engineering Ph.D.s. Distinguished nationally by one
of the highest graduation rates among all U.S. master’s
universities, California’s oldest operating
higher-education institution demonstrates faith-inspired values of
ethics and social justice. For more information, see www.scu.edu.
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