The Accountable Prosecutor Project is a newly established research and public information project at Wake Forest University Law School focused on internal and external methods of improving prosecutor accountability. The Project Director coordinates research by law student research assistants and collaborates with the Wake Forest criminal law faculty whose research overlaps with the project.
Eileen Prescott, the Project Director, is a former prosecutor who is passionate about building trust in prosecutor offices through public transparency, common-sense internal policy, and community engagement. She worked in the federal habeas unit at the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office, where decades-old cases with serious problems continue to raise justice concerns. Her research and management of the project is informed by this history, and she hopes the research will allow every participant in the criminal system (including legislators, voters, discipline boards, and prosecutors themselves) to evaluate reforms that promote transparency and credibility.
Accountable Prosecutor Project in the News
- Accountability in Action: Wake Forest Law’s Newly Launched Accountable Prosecutor Project Aims to Better Understand the Role of Prosecutors and their Accountability to Communities. Amelia Nitz Kennedy. The Jurist (2021). https://jurist.law.wfu.edu/files/jurist-2021.pdf?%3C?=20211011;?%3E#page=24 Alternate link to story from Dec. 21, 2021: http://news.law.wfu.edu/2021/12/2021-jurist-accountability-in-action/
- Winston-Salem Journal article about Yusef Salaam event sponsored by Accountable Prosecutor Project among others: https://journalnow.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/yusef-salaam-one-of-five-people-wrongfully-convicted-in-central-park-jogger-attack-speaks-to/article_4d9f6e7c-1fa2-11ec-abe4-67f8521d54cd.html