An Arizona organization working to investigate and litigate cases of wrongful conviction in Arizona will receive funding from the Department of Justice to continue that work.
The University of Arizona Innocence Project started as a small clinic in 2014 and today it's one of two such initiatives in Arizona.
This year, it received $500,000 in federal funds from the DOJ’s Bureau of Justice Assistance, which runs a program focused on wrongful conviction prevention nationwide.
"It will enable us to increase our staff so we can reach more clients and resolve more cases, it’s going to expand our access to expert services, so things like DNA where that’s warranted," said Vanessa Buch, director of the Innocence Project and an associate clinical professor at the University of Arizona law school.
Buch said the organization fields about 150 requests per year from people hoping to have the team investigate their cases of those of loved ones. She said the federal money will also be used for the organization's training program for law students and to bolster an existing partnership with the Pima County Attorney’s Office to identify and prevent cases of wrongful convictions and unjust sentencing.
Twenty-five exonerations have occurred in Arizona since 1989, according to datacompiled by the National Registry of Exonerations.
