Heights resident PETER NEUFELD testified Tuesday in Manhattan at a public hearing of the Assembly Committee on Codes. Neufeld is co-founder and co-director of The Innocence Project, a non-profit legal clinic that only handles cases where postconviction DNA testing of evidence can yield conclusive proof of innocence.
The purpose of the hearing was to examine the laws, standards and practices concerning biological crime scene evidence that may yield DNA identification information in criminal investigations. Neufeld spoke about the “great struggle” his organization has faced when attempting to test DNA in New York. The Innocence Project’s latest success story was featured in the Eagle earlier this week; Scott Fappiano was released by a Brooklyn judge Oct. 6 after serving 21 years in prison for a rape he did commit.
