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Part of Criminal Law

Post-Conviction & Innocence Work

Challenging convictions and sentences after trial.

Find schools with programsAll areas of law

What this area covers

Post-conviction lawyers reinvestigate cases, pursue appeals and habeas petitions, and seek relief for people who were wrongly convicted or excessively sentenced.

Also called: Capital Defense, Habeas Corpus, Innocence Project, Wrongful Convictions.

Typical legal work

  • Reinvestigating closed cases
  • Filing habeas and clemency petitions
  • Litigating claims of wrongful conviction

Where lawyers work

  • Nonprofit and advocacy organizations
  • Public defender offices
  • Law school clinics

A setting is where you work; an area is what the work is about. The same area is practised in very different settings.

Schools with verified programs

A school is listed here only when its own website names a concentration, certificate, clinic, center or field placement in Post-Conviction & Innocence Work. Schools are in alphabetical order. The list is not a ranking, and a school that is absent may still teach the subject.

21 schools · 1 concentration · 18 clinics · 3 centers and institutes · 1 externship

Filter these schools in the directory

Program types counted as evidence: clinics, certificates, concentrations and specializations, centers and institutes, externships and field placements. Joint degrees and advanced degrees are described under Degrees & program types.

Sources

These references informed what the area covers. The description above is PreLaw Advisor’s own and does not reproduce their text.

  1. 1.American Bar Association. Criminal Justice Section (opens in a new tab) Retrieved Sep 2026.

Description reviewed Sep 2026. Each school program links to the page it was verified against.