New York Focus and Columbia Journalism Investigations are excited to collaborate with and support local newsrooms across the state examining New York’s conviction integrity units. Over the last year, our Innocence Ignored investigative series has demonstrated the ways that conviction integrity units — special units within District Attorney’s offices — uphold the broken system they were meant to fix, and leave people with wrongful conviction cases languishing in prison.
In addition to the published series, reporters have compiled databases using public records to support journalists and researchers in expanding on their reporting. The databases include:
The CIU Database
New York Focus and CJI used FOIL requests, interviews with staff, and publicly available records to gather and document standardized information for all 17 county units in New York, including:
Current and founding DAs
Key staff
Application and exoneration statistics
Policies and structures
Transparency practices
The CIU “Missed Cases” Database
We identified cases in which a CIU did not act on a wrongful conviction claim, but a court later overturned the conviction.
The database draws on the National Registry of Exonerations and shoe leather reporting to identify exonerees.
Reporters spoke with defense attorneys to determine which cases involved a CIU that declined to support exoneration.
The CIU Exoneree Database
This database uses the National Registry of Exonerations to examine 93 exonerees whose convictions were overturned with CIU backing in New York.
Reporters identified more than 40 cases that likely involved prosecutorial misconduct
The spreadsheet includes context on each case using archival research and clip searches.
Watch our Zoom webinar, where reporters discuss their toolkit and how to use it:
Visit our full media toolkit here.
This document is a roadmap to the project. In it, you’ll find:
A description of our project
A summary of our key findings
The details of our databases, their methodology, and how to make the most of them
A breakdown of our public records
Tips on how to dig into the conviction integrity unit in your area
If you have any questions, please contact New York Focus Audience Engagement Editor Alex Arriaga at alex@nysfocus.com.
