Federal funding to see if some convicted could be exonerated

PHOENIX – Arizona is getting a $1.4 million federal grant for DNA testing in certain cases in which people have been convicted but could be found to be innocent.

Attorney General Terry Goddard’s office is getting the grant along with the Arizona Justice Project at Arizona State University’s law school.

Those agencies will work with crime labs in conjunction with the Arizona Criminal Justice Commission to arrange for testing of biological evidence.

According to Goddard’s office, the post-conviction testing would involve cases of forcible rape, murder and non-negligent manslaughter “that might demonstrate actual innocence.”

Goddard says the testing should help insure that those who have committed violent crimes are put behind bars.

This entry was posted on Friday, October 10th, 2008 at 12:01 am and is filed under Uncategorized. Tags for this post: page-a02, The Associated Press. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.