Audrey McGinn

Audrey McGinn is an American attorney who works at the California Innocence Project (CIP), a nonprofit organization at California Western School of Law that provides pro bono legal services to individuals who maintain their factual innocence of crimes for which they have been convicted. McGinn has participated as an attorney in at least seven exonerations of convicted prisoners. She authors petitions on behalf of clients, and also directs and supervises clinic student casework and the project’s volunteers. McGinn helped found ten Innocence Projects in Latin America, and has lectured to law schools in those countries about exonerations and the use of DNA in criminal cases. She has trained Spanish-speaking lawyers in Latin America in trial advocacy skills.
From September 2015 to September 2016, McGinn served as Director of the Wrongful Convictions Division (WCD) of the Iowa State Public Defender’s office, where she reviewed past convictions to determine if any should be reversed for improper evidence.
While still a law school student, McGinn's interest in Latin America led her to join Proyecto ACCESO, a CWSL program promoting the rule of law in Latin America through education and outreach to legal professionals and the public. The position was established to provide “a systemic approach” to address post conviction relief for prisoners.
In the position, McGinn worked in partnership with the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation and the Innocence Project of Iowa. She also said, "We know that this has been a problem elsewhere and I think it would be presumptuous to say that it would not be a problem in Iowa. It’s just a matter of finding these cases and finding the appropriate legal means to prove their factual innocence if we have the ability to do so."<ref name"Iowa"/> In September 2016, McGinn left her position at the WCD and returned to the California Innocence Project.<ref name"Resume"/>
Awards and honors
McGinn was named “Professor of the Year” in 2018 at California Western School of Law, where she is an LL.M. Professor.<ref name="Team"/>

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