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Who

Along with Barry Scheck, Neufeld is a former member of the original O.J. Simpson "Dream Team" and a co-founder of the Innocence Project, a pro bono group that works toward the exoneration of the wrongly convicted.

Backstory

Neufeld grew up in a Brooklyn home committed to civil rights: His mother served as president of the Ethical Culture Society. He attended the University of Wisconsin (where he was suspended twice for taking part in riots on campus) before moving back to New York to earn a law degree from NYU in 1975. During a stint as a public defender he met Barry Scheck, and in 1986 the two went into private practice. One of their first cases involved Marion Coakley, who had been imprisoned for raping and robbing a woman even though he was mentally disabled and few really believed he was capable of the crime. DNA evidence wasn't available at the time, but the case spurred Neufeld and Scheck's interest in scientific ways to prove innocence or guilt. The two took on similar cases on an informal basis until 1992, when they formed the Innocence Project at Yeshiva University's Cardozo School of Law. It's since become the country's premier organization dedicated to exonerating the innocent using DNA evidence.

Of note

Neufeld and Scheck appeared in the public eye as members of O.J. Simpson's "Dream Team" in 1994, along with Robert Shapiro and Johnnie Cochran. Although the case wasn't necessarily great for their reputations as champions of the underprivileged, it helped to raise their public profile, and they teamed up with Cochran again a few years later to represent Haitian immigrant Abner Louima in his suit against the NYPD. (The three attorneys, along with Sanford Rubenstein, helped Louima collect a record $8.75 million settlement.) Since then, Neufeld has continued to take on civil rights cases—he and Scheck briefly represented the family of Amadou Diallo, the African immigrant shot 41 times by NYPD officers in 1999—although these days Neufeld spends the majority of his time on the Innocence Project. Since its inception, the group has helped exonerate close to 200 people, 14 of whom had been slated for execution.

For the record

Although the Innocence Project was founded in conjunction with Cardozo Law School, it's no longer officially connected to the university. (Cardozo students still work on cases, though, and it maintains close ties to the institution.) These days, it's an independent non-profit group and funded by private individuals and corporate sponsors.

In print

Neufeld and Scheck wrote the bestseller Actual Innocence: Five Days to Execution, and Other Dispatches From the Wrongly Convicted, along with New York Times reporter Jim Dwyer.

Personal

Neufeld's wife, Adele Bernhard, is a professor at Pace University's law school and very involved with the Innocence Project. They have two 20-something children, Shane and Lena.

Off hours

Shortly after he graduated, Neufeld landed a job working on the set on the Terence Malick classic Days of Heaven. Although he ditched film to pursue law, he says he still writes screenplays in his free time.