Wednesday, July 9, 2014
Open Society Foundations Award $5 Million Challenge Grant To Strengthen Innocence Project
A $5 million challenge grant from The Open Society Foundations will help the Innocence Project's efforts to establish a $20 million reserve fund.
OSF support and future grants its challenge helps the organization raise will be used to fortify the Innocence Project’s future as a leading criminal justice advocacy institution in the United States.
The Innocence Project works with people who have used all legal avenues to prove their wrongful conviction. Most often they are poor and forgotten by the justice system. Since 1992, 317 people (18 of whom served time on death row) have been exonerated by DNA evidence; the Innocence Project was involved in 173 of these cases.
“Today, I can think of no organization better placed than the Innocence Project to demonstrate the need for reform and to show the way the forward,” said Chris Stone, president of the Open Society Foundations. “By showing us all how we can learn from our mistakes—even the most tragic ones—the Innocence Project has inspired substantial improvements in the administration of justice. We are confident that they will expand on their record of excellent work.”...