Application process

The Arizona Justice Project takes cases of actual innocence or cases in which some manifest injustice occurred in Arizona. 

Due to our limited resources, the case review process could take several months, and several years if we accept the case to proceed through the courts or before the Board of Executive Clemency.

We work as quickly as possible to respond to all inmate requests for case evaluation.

Qualify

Self-assessment

To quality for review, you must meet all of the following criteria:

  • You are serving time on an Arizona conviction or a federal conviction stemming from an incident in Arizona.
  • You have a claim of actual innocence or manifest injustice.
  • You are not currently represented by an attorney or entitled to an attorney at public expense.

If you’re not sure if you, a family member, or friend qualifies, please feel free to contact us.

Pre-Screen application

Submit short application to rule-out conflicts.

Download, complete, and sign the following pre-screening application to help us determine whether any legal conflicts exist.

Application
Solicitud

Return completed and signed application to either:

Email: AZ Justice Project

Intake

Submit full application and case profile.

Once we determine there are no conflicts, we will send you a more comprehensive application that collects important information about your case that will assist in our review.

You must also sign the last page of the application, which authorizes the Justice Project to speak with the prior attorneys involved in your case.

Determine merit

Assign to attorney to investigate and determine legal merit of claims.

Once we recieve the full application, your case undergoes an initial screening by our intake lawyer.

If there are issues we believe require further investigation, your case is assigned to a lawyer supervisor, who may work with law student volunteers or other volunteers, to determine the merit of legal issues for post-conviction relief, clemency, habeas corpus relief. 

and decide if the Justice Project will be able to take your case.

Acceptance

If your claims have merit, we make a final determination if we can take your case.

Please be aware that due to our limited resources, this review process could take several months, and several years if the case is accepted to proceed through the courts or before the Board of Executive Clemency.

We work as quickly as possible to respond to all inmate requests for case evaluation.