2025 January Dispatch

How a new Innocence Clinic is bringing new hope to the wrongfully incarcerated in Nebraska. 

Nebraska isn’t a large state. 

In 2024, its population topped out just under two million.

But of those two million, over 6,000 are incarcerated, giving Nebraska the distinction of having one of the highest incarceration rates in the nation.

Only 9 people have ever been exonerated in Nebraska.

“I think people believe that innocent people should be free.” That’s Elizabeth Cole, the Director of the new Innocence Clinic at the University of Nebraska College of Law, which is set to launch this month in partnership with the Midwest Innocence Project (MIP). But we don’t talk about it enough, and we trust the system more than we should. Starting to have that conversation more loudly and more deeply will be really beneficial. And that’s exactly where our students come in.”

The Nebraska Innocence Clinic will be taking a close look at wrongful incarceration cases that originated within the state.

“We’ll be reviewing, investigating, and potentially litigating,” Ms. Cole says. “We’re also planning to do policy work, because the law here in Nebraska has a lot of room to improve in this area. And we’ll be working hard to educate the community and our elected officials about just how hard it is for innocent people to be exonerated. 

I believe the more people understand the process, the more they’ll be on board to help foster change.”

A grant from the United States Department of Justice allowed the university to dream up a plan for the Innocence Clinic, its 10th clinical project and the only one in the state centered entirely around innocence and exoneration in Nebraska. With help from the grant, MIP will move cases from our waiting list into action.

We’re starting with eight students next semester,” explains Ms. Cole, “a mixture of second and third year law students. They’re going to learn how to work these cases backwards, from where they currently are to where they began. 

With innocence work, students get exposed very quickly to complexity and the layers of circumstance, trauma, law, and injustice that each client is dealing with. They learn that someone who the system has labeled a criminal is always more than just that – that there is a person behind the label, a person with family and history and loved ones. A whole life. It’s a powerful thing to learn firsthand.”

It’s the sort of all-in experience that can define a career for a law student, much like it did for Ms. Cole herself.

When I was in law school, I interned during the summer for the Michigan Innocence Clinic at the University of Michigan Law School,” she recalls. “The clients I worked for were incredible. 

Leading these students through innocence work feels like the beginning of something powerful. We’ll have an impact on each client AND also on the system in Nebraska. There’s power in this work and in this movement. Being able to contribute something that changes the way we approach justice for the better – that’s a huge motivating factor for me. I think we’re about to ignite a passion for innocence work here in Nebraska – in our school, our community, and wherever it goes from there.

Not all of the students who work for the Nebraska Innocence Clinic will go on to pursue criminal defense or innocence work. But no matter which direction their careers take them, the skills they learn with the help of Ms. Cole and the MIP will stay with them.

When you get a case file, you can’t believe anything in it 100%,” Ms. Cole asserts. “Investigations for innocence work teach students to be discerning in a very traditional legal sense – not just accepting what’s on the paper at face value, but being willing to ask questions about absolutely everything to make sure you’ve gotten as close as possible to the truth. 

Innocence work teaches an essential kind of skepticism. The kind that builds integrity back into the system where caseloads and bias have unintentionally eroded it. It teaches students to look for what might have been missed, which is what the people working for the law should always be doing.

No matter what kind of law these students go into, that skepticism will serve them well.”

Nebraska is a small state with an incarceration rate that deserves a hard look and a careful review. It’s Ms. Cole’s hope that the Nebraska Innocence Clinic will be the catalyst for transformative change in the way the state approaches justice. 

“This community is unique in that the students tend to stay here.” she says. “Nebraska is very big on knowing each other – the population is small, and our relationships here really matter. I’ve only been here since August and everyone I’ve met, regardless of their background, regardless of their position, is really excited about this. My goal is to keep that momentum going, to keep people excited about fighting for integrity in the system and the way our team will be reviewing things fervently and well. 

We’re bringing an energy to this process that Nebraska hasn’t experienced before – and our students will be the face of that.”

Your support of the MIP allows us to continue our support of projects like the Nebraska Innocence Clinic – projects that help us seek and attain justice for the thousands of wrongfully incarcerated innocent people behind bars in Nebraska and the other states we serve.

Join the fight for justice at www.themip.org