LAS VEGAS -- Since the late 1980s, more than 220 prisoners have been exonerated through DNA evidence, and a group of students from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, plan to continue the process.

Through the Innocence Clinic, UNLV law students will investigate cases to make sure the wrongfully imprisoned will walk free. The program is an extension of the Rocky Mountain Innocence Center, based in Utah.

That center is inundated with letters from inmates, claiming innocence and begging for their help. Two years ago, they contacted the Boyd School of Law to see if any students would be interested in helping the cause.

Several law students had already been searching for a way to aid the wrongly accused and had advocated starting their own Innocence Clinic at UNLV.

As undergrads, the students accept six pre-screened cases and spend a year re-investigating the case. They re-question witnesses and reanalyze evidence, searching for information that may exonerate the inmates.

"I think it's everyone's worst nightmare that they could be blamed for something they didn't do -- they could say over and over 'I didn't do this' and not be believed," said Innocence Clinic director Kate Kruse. "I just welcome the opportunity to search for the truth in a way that stands up for people who may have been victimized by the system."

At the end of the year, the students will create a report for the board of the Rocky Mountain Innocence Center about what they found.

Board members will either decide to close the case if the evidence corroborates the guilty verdict or if they don't think they can actually prove innocence, or pass the case to an attorney for further investigation.

For more information about the program, contact parent company The Innocence Network.