ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the political dynamics and policy accomplishments of three innocence reforms that occurred in the first decade of the twenty-first century: Illinois legislation stimulated by Governor Ryan's death penalty moratorium and his Commission on Capital Punishment, the Innocence Protection Act passed by Congress and signed into law by President Bush in 2004; and an innocence reform package passed by the Ohio legislature in 2010. The chapter contains two goals. First, by describing the political context as well as the substance of the reform efforts, it assesses the strengths and limits of innocence reform at the present time. Second, it explores the Innocence Movement and innocence projects as interest groups, assessing how closely innocence projects align with theories of policy making. Much policy making theory developed by political scientists is oriented toward federal level congressional policy level, and may not precisely fit innocence policy making at state and local levels.
