The Innocence Project By Peter Neufeld And Barry Scheck

The Innocence Project, founded in 1992 by Peter Neufeld and Barry Scheck, absolves ones who were wrongly convicted through DNA testing and improves the criminal justice system to prevent future injustices. Their mission is to free the overwhelming amount of innocent people who remain incarcerated, and bring amends to the system responsible for their unjust imprisonment. The Innocence Project aims to exonerate, improve, reform, and support. In 1978, Kenneth Adams and three other men, all together known as the “Ford Heights Four”, were wrongly convicted of rape and double murder. The three other men were Verneal Jimmerson, Dennis Williams, and Willie Rainge. Paula Gray, Adams’ girlfriend, was also brought into the station for questioning,

Richard Danziger was convicted of the rape, and Chris Ochoa, his friend, pleaded guilty to the murder. Though it would later be revealed that he had been pressed into confessing and that neither Danziger or Ochoa had anything to do with the homicide or the raping of DePriest. The victim had worked at a Pizza Hut, and it was there, where she had been tied up using her bra, raped, and had been shot in the head. The police began to searching the local Pizza Hut employees on the theory that a master key had been used to gain entry. Christopher Ochoa and Richard Danziger were roommates, and worked at an Austin area Pizza Hut. They had been observed by a Pizza Hut waitress eating and drinking beer in what she had guessed to be a toast to the victim, and after being questioned by the police in November of 1988 the two became the main suspects. The two men were questioned separately, where the police made note that Danziger seemed to know more about the crime that was not public knowledge. After Ochoa was interrogated, the police reported that he had confessed his involvement of the crime, and he had pointed to Richard as the assailant who shot Nancy DePriest after they had robbed the restaurant. The state then offered Chris a life sentence if he agreed to plead guilty and to testify against Richard at trial, and under the threat of receiving death penalty and by the advice of his attorney he agreed to the terms that were given to him. But at trial, Chris Ochoa changed his story claiming that he, and not Danziger, had shot DePriest. That resulted in the prosecutors charging Danziger with rape instead of the murder. Then Ochoa testified saying that the two had planned on robbing the Pizza Hut, where they had tied up and raped Nancy DePriest, and Ochoa then shot her because she had recognized him. Danziger presented the court with an alibi defense claiming he had been with his