Wrongful Conviction Day event features the exoneration of Nancy Smith on Oct. 4

The Center for Law, Justice and Culture and the Ohio Innocence Project (OIP) will commemorate Wrongful Conviction Day with a special presentation on Tuesday, Oct. 4, at 7 p.m. in the Athena Cinema.

"Proving the Unprovable: The Exoneration of Nancy Smith" features Ohio Innocence Project Director Mark Godsey and exoneree Nancy Smith. This event also is sponsored by the Division of Diversity and Inclusion and the Women's Center.

Smith was a bus driver in Lorain, Ohio, who was falsely accused of a sexual assault that never happened. The investigation into Smith was dropped by the original prosecutor, Tom Cantu, due to lack of evidence and multiple confirmations of Smith’s alibi. Two new prosecutors later had Cantu removed and sparked an investigation back into Smith and an unknown accomplice “Joseph.” Joseph Allen, a man with previous sexual assault convictions, was accused of being the accomplice and tried alongside Smith in 1993. Both were convicted in 1994.

The Ohio Innocence Project helped fight for the 2022 exoneration of Smith. OIP argued that the conviction was based on a case that had a lack of evidence and used coached statements with credibility issues. Godsey called Smith’s conviction “long, painful and patently unfair.”

Godsey is the Daniel P. and Judith L. Carmichael Professor of Law and Director at the Lois and Richard Rosenthal Institute for Justice/Ohio Innocence Project in the College of Law at the University of Cincinnati. He has secured the release of 35 innocent individuals. He graduated from the Moritz College of Law at Ohio State University and is the author of Blind Justice: A Former Prosecutor Exposes the Psychology and Politics of Wrongful Convictions . Following law school, Godsey clerked for Chief Judge Monroe G. McKay of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit in Salt Lake City, Utah. Godsey also has practiced civil litigation and white collar-criminal defense, and worked for the Department of Justice as an assistant U.S. attorney.