ATLANTA - When two Georgia State University law students first started an effort to free innocent state prison inmates through DNA evidence, it seemed the Georgia Innocence Project would never get off the ground. <br>
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``We had a lot of people who wished us luck, but not many people took us seriously,'' said Jill Polster, now a member of the Fulton County Public Defender's Office. ``But we were determined. I just never realized it'd take three years to get it going.'' <br>
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The project is being taken seriously now. <br>
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Handwritten letters filled with desperate pleas for help are pouring in, said Aimee Maxwell, the project's executive director. About 100 prisoners have asked their cases be reviewed. <br>
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The Georgia project is one of almost three dozen nationwide that were inspired by the successes of the Innocence Project at New York's Benjamin Cardozo School of Law. Over the past decade, 110 people have been exonerated because of DNA evidence. <br>
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The list includes Calvin Johnson Jr., cleared three years ago after serving 16 years in prison for a Clayton County rape he didn't commit. Johnson, who was sentenced to life in prison, now sits on the Georgia Innocence Project's board of directors. <br>
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Polster and fellow student September Guy took it upon themselves to start the Georgia project after law professor Randy Rich mentioned the idea to them. <br>
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The two persuaded the Georgia Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers to give them a $2,000 grant, which they used to visit the Innocence Project in New York. On that trip, they met Christopher Ochoa, a Texas man cleared of murder after 12 years in prison. <br>
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Ochoa thanked the Benjamin Cardozo law school students in an emotional address. <br>
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``It was wonderful,'' recalled Guy, 26, now a defense lawyer in Rossville. ``We were so inspired by his story, we came back and worked so much harder to get it done.'' <br>
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Polster and Guy hoped to find a home for Georgia's project at Georgia State. But they were told it wasn't going to happen. <br>
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``That was a dark day - and, unfortunately, there were many,'' said Polster, who quit her job as a Rich's buying officer four years ago to become a 32-year-old law student. <br>
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She and Guy eventually secured a $25,000 challenge grant from the Georgia Bar Foundation. The Georgia Indigent Defense Council then matched it. A donation of $50,000 followed, and they were on their way. <br>
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The project gained more credibility when some of Georgia's most prominent defense attorneys agreed to serve on its board. <br>
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``It is the paramount duty of the legal system and of lawyers to eliminate injustices,'' board member Ed Garland said. ``It is fundamental to the American concept of freedom.
