Three Wofford students joined Dr. Dawn McQuiston, professor of psychology and director of the South Carolina Innocence Initiative, to attend the Innocence Network Conference held April 3-5 in Seattle. The attendees were Sydney Holland ’25, Teagan McIntosh ’27 and Nick Ross ’26.
McQuiston says the conference began as a place for exonerated people to come together and share their stories and legal battles. It has grown since to include attorneys, journalists and others, but few undergraduate students get this opportunity. McQuiston says that the conference has also become even more comprehensive in subject matter over the past few years.
“I’ve been attending this conference for more than a decade, and I increasingly see programming focused on advances in science that are now used in the courtroom to litigate claims of innocence,” she says. “That’s what I’m most interested in, and I use this in both my teaching and research at Wofford.”
Ross says that sharing a room with exonerees was a humbling experience that reminded him how large the issue of wrongful conviction is. He was able to speak with one he met through Wofford: Kristine Bunch, who spoke on campus in March about serving 17 years in prison for a crime she didn’t commit.
“I was lucky to be able to reconnect with her in person, and we discussed what's next for South Carolina,” Ross says. “The fact that an Indiana native who could be doing anything with her life after spending so long in jail for a crime she didn't commit wanted to continue fighting for people she has never met in our state meant the world to me and continues to inspire me.”
The South Carolina Innocence Initiative is the only academic innocence organization in the state, which does not have an official innocence project. Its work was recognized as the Philanthropy/Service Initiative of the Year at Wofford’s 2024-25 Student Organization Awards this week, and McQuiston says an upcoming branch of innocence work will allow students to review innocence claims in South Carolina.