Mission / Purpose

The goal of IPNO's Juvenile Initiative is to identify and exonerate the significant number of youth who have been wrongfully convicted in the State of Louisiana. The need for the Juvenile Initiative is especially significant in Louisiana as the state sentences children under the age of 18 to life without parole (LWOP) at the highest rate in the United States, which is the only country worldwide that finds it suitable to punish children to die in prison.

The initiative, in conjunction with Citizens for Second Chances, works to identify each of the children sentenced to LWOP in Louisiana. IPNO reviews each case to determine the likelihood that  it requires further investigation and IPNO representation. IPNO is currently working on seven cases of potentially innocent men sentenced to life without parole who were juveniles when they were arrested. This initiative is exposing the risks associated with trying children in an adult system that lacks the necessary protection of their rights and subjects them to mandatory LWOP sentences.

IPNO's work to date has provided compelling evidence that teenagers facing criminal charges in the adult system are particularly vulnerable to wrongful conviction, due to factors such as: 

• Lack of awareness of rights at the police station;
• Failure to appreciate the seriousness of a situation and provide a full account of an alibi;
• Heightened susceptibility to police pressure and therefore higher incidence of false confession; and
• Police profiling practices - young black teenagers are more likely to be considered a suspect in the first place.

It is also true that with young defendants often comes young eyewitnesses and many of the characteristics of youth that cause them to be vulnerable to pressure from authorities, peer pressure, etc. also cause them to be unreliable witnesses. As a result, there is an increased likelihood of:

• Teenage alibi witnesses who are unable to provide a consistent account of where the defendant was at the time of the crime; and
• A lack of appreciation as to the seriousness of the situation, and the consequences that information provides to the police 

It is not surprising then, that juveniles are disproportionately represented among the wrongfully convicted: six of Louisiana's 25 exonerees. This means nearly a quarter of Louisiana's exonerees were in prison for crimes that occurred when they were under the age of 18.

To learn more about IPNO clients who were under the age of 18 when they were arrested, please see the cases of Travis Hayes, Earl Truvia, and Dennis Brown.