Wrongful Conviction Unit FAQs

The Wrongful Conviction Unit (WCU) is the office assigned to post-conviction relief matters. The Unit receives appointments directly from the court for pending post-conviction relief claims and accepts applications from incarcerated individuals with claims of factual innocence.

Call our main office number at: 515-412-0570

Email:
wrongfulconvictionsunit@spd.state.ia.us 

Fax: (888) 869-0571.

We provide our services to applicants free of charge, like any other Public Defender. Iowa does have a statute that allows the court to assess costs and restitution which can include attorneys’ fees.

We have attorneys that handle any post-conviction relief application where the court has appointed the State Public Defender to represent the individual in seeking relief from an Iowa conviction.

We have attorneys who work with innocence project organizations to investigate and litigate claims of actual innocence and/or seek post-conviction DNA testing.

Iowa Code 822.1, et seq sets forth which claims on post-conviction relief an attorney will be appointed to represent you. We do not handle prison disciplinary matters.
 

Our attorneys who work with the innocence organizations and law school clinics cannot help if any of the following are true: 
(1) You are currently awaiting trial or are still pursuing your direct appeal. 
(2) You are not claiming actual innocence to the case for which you seek assistance.
(3) You have seven years or less left to serve on the incarceration portion of your sentence. 
(4) You played a minor role in the crime.
(5) You feel you should have been convicted of a different crime.
(6) You acted in self-defense.
(7) You claim the defense of insanity or intoxication.
(8) You were convicted of sexual assault for an encounter that you say was consensual.
(9) There is no newly discovered evidence.

If you have a pending post-conviction relief application and you are indigent, you may ask the court to appoint the Wrongful Conviction Unit. If the Court has not already found you are indigent, you will need to submit an affidavit of financial status.
 
If you do not have a pending post-conviction relief application, you must file one pro se and request an attorney. You should also file an affidavit of financial status if you are asking for a lawyer.

If you want to make a claim of actual innocence and have already exhausted your appeals, you may complete an Application for Assistance. You may request a copy of the application via email at: exonerate@spd.state.ia.us or by writing to the following address: Wrongful Conviction
Unit, Attn: Intake, 6200 Park Ave, Suite 100, Des Moines, IA 50321.

 Our Intake Staff reviews each application to determine if it meets certain basic program criteria. After our Intake Staff makes their initial determination, we will write to you and inform you whether or not you will be placed on our waiting list.

If our Intake Staff decides that your case warrants further review, we will place your case on our waitlist to be screened. Please know that if your case is placed on the waitlist, we do not agree to do anything other than review your case for potential meritorious claims of actual innocence. During this time, intake staff or law students will contact you and/or other investigating or state agencies to collect documents related to your case. Such documents may include transcripts, lab reports, police reports, etc. Please do not send documents unless requested to by us. If at any time during this process you have upcoming court dates or deadlines, we are unable to assist you with these matters.

Eventually, the cases on our waitlist will be assigned to attorneys or law students, working under the supervision of a project attorney, to be screened. The screening is an in-depth review of your case documents in which the reviewer reads and digests what happened in a case and produces a report with their findings.

After the screening process has been finished and the results reviewed by the legal director, a determination will be made if investigation is warranted. We investigate cases where there is a substantial chance new evidence can be discovered. If it is determined that your case merits investigation, it will first go on our investigation waitlist. When your case is moved to active investigation, you will be contacted and given specifics regarding what activities we agree and do not agree to perform on your behalf.