{"id":87641,"date":"2018-11-21T14:56:15","date_gmt":"2018-11-22T00:56:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=87641"},"modified":"2020-03-09T14:22:03","modified_gmt":"2020-03-10T00:22:03","slug":"hawaii-innocence-project-dna-grant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2018\/11\/21\/hawaii-innocence-project-dna-grant\/","title":{"rendered":"Hawai\u02bbi Innocence Project wins competitive grant for DNA<\/abbr> testing"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading time: <\/span> < 1<\/span> minute<\/span><\/span>
\"Photo
Ken Lawson, at left, with mainland exonerees Uriah Courtney, middle, and Brian Banks in 2017 at the law school.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Hawaiʻi<\/span> Innocence Project (HIP<\/abbr>)<\/a> at the William S. Richardson School of Law<\/a> has been awarded a $567,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Justice. Competition for the grants is fierce.<\/p>\n

HIP<\/abbr> is a student-staffed, carefully supervised law clinic at the University of Hawaiʻi<\/span> at Mānoa<\/a> that uses DNA<\/abbr> and other sophisticated methods to identify and seek exoneration of factually innocent inmates in the local justice system.<\/p>\n

HIP<\/abbr> students investigate new evidence, prepare post-conviction motions, conduct hearings, argue motions and file appeals. The ÌÇÐÄVlog¹Ù·½<\/abbr> law school provides office space, equipment, administrative support and the services of faculty specialist Ken Lawson<\/strong><\/a>, HIP<\/abbr> co-director.<\/p>\n

Lawson is responsible for daily operations, fundraising, and recruitment and coordination of skilled volunteers, which currently include 12 lawyers, two private investigators, two office helpers and David Haymer<\/strong><\/a>, a DNA<\/abbr> expert from the John A. Burns School of Medicine<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Lawson said many of the students who take the HIP<\/abbr> clinic end up practicing criminal law, either as prosecutors or defense lawyers. He said, “We hope they all leave with a burning desire to seek justice.”<\/p>\n

The grant specifically covers the costs of DNA<\/abbr> testing, which can be very expensive. Lawson said each case costs from $10,000 to $30,000.<\/p>\n

HIP<\/abbr> is currently working on 10 cases that involve DNA<\/abbr> evidence and is investigating over a dozen more applications. The project also receives more than 100 requests for help each year from incarcerated inmates in Hawaiʻi<\/span>’s penal system, and carefully evaluates each one.<\/p>\n

See the full story on the law school website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

—By Beverly Creamer<\/em><\/p>\n

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The project is a student-staffed, carefully supervised law clinic that uses DNA<\/abbr> and other methods to identify and seek exoneration of factually innocent inmates.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[154,9,68],"class_list":["post-87641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","tag-law","tag-uh-manoa","tag-william-s-richardson-school-of-law","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87641","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87641"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87641\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":112990,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87641\/revisions\/112990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}