Session II 11:00-11:50 PM
Indiana Innocence Project - Sycamore Banquet Center
Kristine Bunch and Fran Watson will provide a narrative of the innocence movement nationally and in Indiana, beginning with the advent or DNA technology, the growth of law school clinics, including the Innocence Project, and the creation of the Innocence Network, the present affiliation of organizations dedicated to representation and change.
Fran Watson is a Clinical Professor of Law Emerita at IU McKinney School of Law, where she directed the Wrongful Conviction Clinic, a founding member of the Innocence Network. Fran Watson and students in the clinic represented six exonerated clients and freed another. Partnering with the IU Bloomington criminal justice and law schools and the Herbert Simon Family Foundation, Fran Watson helped create the Indiana Innocence Project in 2024, an independent not-for-profit organization dedicated to exonerating the innocent in Indiana prisons. Fran Watson was recognized in 2023, by the American Inn of Court, for professional excellence. She also received recognition for her dedication to clinical education for public defenders with four teaching awards, the Indy-Bar Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Public Defender Council Spirit of Justice Award. She is a native of Jeffersonville, Indiana, and a graduate of Ball State University.
Kristine Bunch is the Vice President and Treasurer for the Indiana Innocence Project.
After being wrongfully convicted in the death of her three-year-old son Anthony in 1996, Kristine Bunch spent more than 17 years behind bars before she was finally exonerated. While incarcerated, she earned her undergraduate degree from Ball State University in English and Anthropology. Now, she is an advocate for the wrongfully convicted and the exonerated alike. Recognizing the profound challenges that accompany exoneration, Kristine has dedicated herself to easing the burdens of fellow exonerees, tirelessly working to provide them with access to essential resources and support networks vital for rebuilding their lives.