Women's Innocence Clinic is a free information and forms service for women wrongly convicted in U.S. courts, and their families.
The crime never happened.She was convicted anyway.
No court will look at her case again unless she asks, in writing, before her deadline. We help her ask.
- Plain explanations of each step and the main deadlines
- The forms, or the filing rules, for every state and D.C.
- Forms printed and mailed to her in prison
Always free. We do not take cases. Who takes cases · Print this guide for her
Where does she start?
Answer each question with yes or no. The first yes shows where she is and what comes next. Words you don't know are in the glossary. If you are the woman inside, these questions are for you too.
- Was she sentenced less than a month ago?
- Act this week. An appeal usually has to start within 30 days, and within 14 days in federal court. Ask her trial lawyer to file a notice of appeal now; in most courts she can file it herself if the lawyer does not. A sentence review deadline may also be close.
- Did she plead guilty, or plead no contest?
- Her road is different. Her appeal is limited, but she can still challenge the plea itself, for example if her lawyer gave her bad advice about it.
- Is her appeal still going?
- Her appeal lawyer is handling it. Use this time to gather her records and find out whether the evidence in her case still exists, so she is ready for the next step the day the appeal ends.
- Is her appeal over, or did she never appeal?
- Her next form is the state post-conviction petition, and the federal one-year clock may already be running. Get her state's forms and count her deadline today.
- Did a state court already deny her post-conviction petition?
- She can usually appeal that denial to a higher state court, and the deadline is short. After the state courts finish, her next form is federal habeas corpus.
- Has a federal court already ruled against her?
- The main court roads may be closed, but other doors remain: new evidence of innocence, changed science, a prosecutor's review unit, clemency, and laws for survivors of abuse in some states.
How it works, in three steps.
Find her step
Answer the questions above, or read the whole process on How It Works. It explains each step, the main deadlines, and what to gather before anyone files.
Get her state's forms
Choose her state to see the forms, or the filing rules where a state has no form, with the deadlines we found and free packets from public defenders where they exist.
We mail them to her
Tell us her name, her prison ID number and her facility. We print her state's forms and mail them to her free, the day we receive a complete request, and we tell you the day they go out. After that, delivery depends on the mail and on her facility.
No crime.No DNA.No other suspect.
DNA frees people when someone else did it. When a death was an accident or an illness, there is nothing to test and no one else to find. What remains is a contest over who she is.
How an innocent woman is convicted.
72% of women exonerated in U.S. courts were convicted of crimes that never happened. The National Registry of Exonerations finds the same causes in case after case.
226 of 316 exonerated women. Source: National Registry of Exonerations, Female Exonerees.
False accusation
Someone lied under oath or accused her falsely: a partner, a relative, a child questioned by adults who expected abuse.
Official misconduct
Police or prosecutors hid evidence that would have helped her, pressured witnesses or misled the jury.
Wrong or overstated science
An expert told the jury something the science did not support, often about how a child died.
A lawyer who failed her
No investigation. No expert of her own. No real challenge to the state's case.
False confession
Words she said to police in shock and grief, presented to the jury as an admission.
She was judged, not the evidence
With no crime to prove, the trial turned on whether she seemed like a good mother, wife or caregiver.
Who we are
Women's Innocence Clinic was founded in 2020 by Susan Oliver and Karen Campbell, who believe the wrongful conviction of women is one of the most important issues women face. We are not a law firm, we do not give legal advice and we do not take cases. Everything we offer is free, and we do not accept donations.
Every state listing on this site is checked against that state's own rule or statute. Last full check: September 2026.
Where was she convicted?
Ask us to mail them to herPrint this guide for herWriting from prison?