Centurion, founded in 1983, is a secular, nonprofit organization dedicated to freeing from prison those who have been wrongly convicted, are completely innocent, and serving long imprisonment terms or death sentences. Centurion is the first organization in the world to investigate cases of unjust convictions. To date, Centurion has freed 61 innocent men and women throughout the US and Canada.
Centurion undertakes the most difficult cases which often lack a DNA aspect and thus require thorough field investigations. Centurion's investigators travel to the crime scene, locate witnesses, convince reluctant witnesses to come forward, search court records, and interview everyone who previously testified. Centurion often discovers evidence that was intentionally hidden from the defense, learns that witnesses were coerced or manipulated, and unearths forensic evidence that was not previously discovered. Centurion receives over 1500 requests a year and works on 20-25 cases at any given time.