Innocence Project gets $1 million in grants

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For the second time in three weeks, the U.S. Department of Justice has awarded a grant to the Wisconsin Innocence Project at the University of Wisconsin Law School’s Frank J. Remington Center.

Together, the two grants total more than $1 million.

The most recent grant, a part of the Postconviction DNA Testing Assistance Program sponsored by the National Institute of Justice, awards $778,329 to the Wisconsin Office of Justice Assistance to give to the Wisconsin Innocence Project.

The previous grant, awarded in August, provides $249,901 through the Bureau of Justice Assistance Wrongful Conviction Review Program.

The money will permit the Innocence Project to continue the work of clinical faculty attorneys Ion Meyn, Tricia Bushnell and Peter Moreno, as well as intake worker Amireh Oettinger, who were all first hired in 2009 under a previous Department of Justice grant.

The grant also allows the project to expand by placing a new Wisconsin Innocence Project attorney in the State Public Defender’s Office to help public defender staff attorneys screen cases for potential new sources of DNA evidence that can be used to prove innocence early in the litigation process.

It will also cover the costs of consultation with DNA experts and DNA testing of biological evidence, as well as travel costs and other office expenses.