The Northern California Innocence Project (NCIP) at Santa Clara University School of Law has been awarded a $635,603 grant to continue its wide-reaching postconviction DNA testing program through August 30, 2016.
The program, named the California Postconviction DNA Testing Assistance Program (CADNAP), helps eligible California inmates pursue postconviction DNA testing to support their claims of innocence. Grant funds help defray costs associated with postconviction DNA testing, by providing means for the location and testing of biological evidence in these cases.
These funds comprise half of the $1,217,206 allocated to NCIP and its sister organization, the California Innocence Project (CIP), who have applied jointly for these resources since 2009. This is the fourth CADNAP grant NCIP has received since 2009.
This fourth grant, like those preceding it, will pay for reviews of eligible postconviction cases of violent felonies, especially forcible rape and homicide; for locating and analyzing biological evidence samples associated with these cases, and for litigating petitions requesting DNA testing.
Since 2009, several lawyers, paralegals and investigators have worked to identify inmates from among the 34 adult prisons statewide who appear most likely to be exonerated by DNA testing. This grant will enable lawyers to continue that highly labor-intensive work for another 18 months.
CADNAP’s program is by far the most concerted effort undertaken in California to identify and review potential cases for postconviction DNA testing. Through this work, CADNAP has developed crucial expertise in postconviction DNA cases. A significant number of cases remain to be reviewed, and the additional funding will enable the projects to proactively identify, locate and assist innocent individuals among California’s 120,000 inmates.
Since its inception, CADNAP has made significant progress. In cooperation with the California Department of Corrections (CDCR), over 45,000 informational packets were sent to prisoners convicted of homicide and sexual assault offenses. CADNAP has screened more than 7,000 cases and located and tested DNA evidence in over 50 cases, including three cases in which exculpatory DNA evidence led to exonerations of three innocent men – NCIP client Johnny Williams and CIP clients Uriah Courtney and Michael Hanline.
The funding for this program comes from the National Institute of Justice, a part of the Kirk Bloodsworth Postconviction DNA Testing grant program, included in the 2004 Justice for All Act sponsored by Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.). The Bloodsworth grant was intended to allow states to conduct DNA tests in cases in which someone has already been convicted, but key DNA evidence was not tested. The grant funds were awarded competitively to the California Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES), which oversees CADNAP’s programs and funds distribution.
