Great North Innocence Project sees $600K grant slashed due to federal funding cuts
Federal funding cuts are hitting organizations and non-profits. One of the latest is Great North Innocence Project.
The non-profit works to free wrongfully convicted people.
On the walls of the Great North Innocence Project in Minneapolis hang pictures of clients the non-profit freed. It relies on donations and grants to fund the mission. Recently Executive Director Sara Jones learned their 3-year $600,000 federal grant from the U.S. Department of Justice was cut.
"It was shocking and really upsetting to us. I mean, we had plans for the next three years to really take what we already have and enhance the work that we do," Jones said.
Jones estimates the grant accounts for 15% of their annual budget. The money, she says, funds a third of their legal staff.
"It means that justice will be delayed. We already have a long line of applicants who are waiting for us to assess their cases, do deep dive investigations, which sometimes take years to complete. So it's going to take longer to be able to address that, and it will set us back in terms of our goals," Jones said.
It's freed 13 people in it's 24-year history, and eight people since 2020. Last week, Robert Kaiser was acquitted of the murder of his infant son after his case was retried in Stearns County. Marvin Haynes is another example, released in 2023 after spending 20 years behind bars for a Minneapolis murder he didn't commit.
"And so we're upset that this momentum maybe stopped short, and we had hoped over time to improve and grow our systems and our staff," Jones said.
To address the sudden cuts, they are exploring an administrative appeal process. And says they are focused on finding funding.
"For this year, we are determined not to cut our staff. We will do our best to make up the funding gap. We simply can't cut our staff and still do the work that we're already doing. And we have an ethical obligation to our current clients," Jones said.
The Great North Innocence Project says two to three hundred people write each year asking the non-profit to take their case.
One of them is Jerry Westrom. He asked it to review his conviction in the 1993 murder of Jeanie Childs.
The case is the subject of the WCCO original documentary Footprint to Murder. You can watch it now on WCCO's YouTube page.
