Maitreya Badami
Maitreya Badami is a supervising attorney at the Northern California Innocence Project (NCIP). In addition to investigating and litigating claims of wrongful conviction based on factual innocence, Maitreya is involved in policy advocacy in support of reforming the procedures California police departments use in obtaining eyewitness identification evidence. Eyewitness misidentification is the single largest contributor to wrongful convictions, and Maitreya is currently working with a number of allies in police departments statewide to bring about the adoption of updated procedures designed to reduce the wrongful identification of an innocent suspect. Before joining NCIP, Maitreya spent 16 years in criminal defense, both as a deputy public defender and in private practice. She has litigated both trial and appellate cases, in California state and federal courts. She has been a panel attorney for the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, litigating direct appeals and habeas corpus petitions.
