The Innocence Institute of Point Park University provides a real-world learning environment for aspiring journalists who learn investigative reporting skills to expose wrongful convictions. While there are many law-based innocence projects, ours is the only journalism only innocence project in the country.

The institute is part of Point Park University’s School of Communication. Graduate and undergraduate journalism students take institute classes as part of their coursework, earning credit toward their degrees.

Most students begin working with the institute by evaluating letters and other material sent by inmates, then determining whether the cases involve issues of wrongful conviction. Students then progress to finding and reading court transcripts, examining evidence, locating and interviewing witnesses and visiting crime scenes. Finally, students write stories for possible publication in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

• More on graduate studies

• More on undergraduate studies