Actually Innocent
Tuesday, October 7 | Noon-1 p.m.
Law Center, McQuade Law Auditorium
Professor Nathan Goetting, Dean Tracey Brame, Professor Ann Garant, Gilbert Poole
Jr.
Professor Nathan Goetting, who holds a joint appointment at Adrian College and The University of Toledo College of Law, will discuss his new book, "The Supreme Court's Actual Innocence Problem: How the Supreme Court of the United States Has Failed to Reduce Wrongful Convictions." In it, he argues that the Supreme Court has failed to adequately respond to the data on inmate exonerations since the DNA Revolution in forensic science. Instead, the Court has minimized and perpetuated miscarriages of justice in all seven of the major problem areas where constitutional criminal procedure reforms are needed. Professor Goetting will be joined by Dean Tracey Brame and Prof. Ann Garant, co-directors of the Cooley Innocence Project, and Gilbert Poole Jr., who was exonerated in 2021 after spending 32 years in prison for a murder he didn’t commit.
Professor Nathan Goetting
Professor Goetting joined the faculty of Adrian College in 2008 and currently serves as a Professor of Criminal Justice and Jurisprudence and the Director of the George W. Romney Institute for Law and Public Policy. He began teaching at The University of Toledo College of Law in 2016 and was given a Prestige Faculty appointment in 2025. His scholarship focuses on constitutional law and civil liberties.
Professor Ann Garant
Ann Garant is the Co-Director of the Cooley Innocence Project at Cooley Law School, where she oversees the full operation of the program, which is dedicated to investigating claims of wrongful incarceration. In addition to her leadership role, she serves as an adjunct professor, teaching courses on wrongful convictions and guiding the next generation of legal advocates.
Dean Tracey Brame
Tracey Brame serves as the Associate Dean of Experiential and Practice Preparation at Cooley Law School and the Co-Director of the Cooley Innocence Project. She joined Cooley Law School in February 2006 from Legal Aid of Western Michigan, where she was a staff attorney. She started the Access to Justice Clinic at the Grand Rapids campus in 2006. She has overseen both this clinic and the West Michigan Public Defender Clinic. In addition to these roles and her work as an Associate Dean, she has also taught elective constitutional law courses.
Gilbert Poole Jr.
Gilbert Poole Jr was wrongly convicted of murder in 1989, based on unreliable evidence, and later exonerated in 2021 by the Cooley Innocence Project.
About the lecture
This free, public lecture is presented by The University of Toledo College of Law.
Parking
McQuade Law Auditorium is on the main level of the Law Center — located at 1825 West Rocket Drive, immediately inside the UToledo West Entrance off of Secor Road and south of Bancroft Street.
You will need a guest permit which can be obtained at guestparking.utoledo.edu. Alternatively, you can use the ParkMobile app in most areas on campus which allows you to pay for short term parking.