Big bucks for Midwestern Innocence Project

The Star‘s Tony Rizzo reported yesterday that the Midwestern Innocence Project won a $287,500 grant from the U.S. Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Assistance. The money will fund two paralegals for two years as they investigate claims of innocence from prison inmates whose convictions were not based on DNA evidence.

This news should give hope to inmates with situations like like Darryl Burton’s, whose exoneration was the subject of last week’s cover story. Inmates with strong claims of innocence can contact the Innocence Project for help, as an avenue through which to fight alleged wrongful convictions.

The additional funding is presumably another feather in the hat of Jay Swearingen, Executive Director of the Midwestern Innocence Project, who’s also running as a Democrat for the Missouri House, District 31.