GUY PAUL Morin. Donald Marshall. David Milgaard. Each was wrongly convicted, all eventually exonerated. Now two Osgoode Hall Law School professors are doing their bit to help those who end up on the wrong side of the law.

The "Innocence Project" - the only one of its kind at any law school in Canada - is the initiative of law professors Dianne Martin and Alan Young, and an offshoot of a similar idea started in the US at the Cardozo Law School.

Martin and Young aren't fighting the good fight alone though - they get lots of help from students. In fact the Innocence Project is running as a credit course. Up to eight students do real-world legal research, file court documents, interview clients and witnesses and review evidence from assigned cases. They also assist the Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted to raise awareness of the issue.

Martin and Young practise what they preach too. Both are criminal lawyers, as well as professors. The biggest lesson students who work on the Innocence Project learn is the time it takes to get information on cases.

"We know the system isn't perfect," says Martin. "The wrongly convicted need advocates. No one believes it's better to leave these people in prison. That's why we're doing this."

Illustration: Tracy Cox