In Project Reasonable Doubt, groups of students investigate closed criminal cases in which there are doubts regarding the conviction.
The Project has the purpose to do the three things universities, at least Dutch universities, exist for: to educate, to do research and to provide a service to society. In a quick sketch: in the Project we study cases in which there seem to be indications that the defendant has been wrongly convicted, for a crime he did not commit or for a crime that has not taken place. The case, if accepted, is studied by a group of student under strict guidance of the Project staff. After their analysis, it is, in principle, the plan to write a booklet on each case and publish it, whether the defendant might or might not be wrongfully convicted. The products of the work of the students are subsequently used as input for research, either for generating research ideas, or as studies on their own. In some of the finalized cases, our analysis provides the basis for an argument to reopen the case and acquit the defendant after all. The latter, however, is the task of the attorney to the convict; the Project produces not more than a solid analysis.