WMU-Cooley Law School Receives $418,000 Grant

Olga Bonfiglio
College of Arts and Sciences Writer

WMU-Cooley Law School has received a grant of $418,000 from the U.S. Department of Justice to help defray costs for running the WMU-Cooley Law School Innocence Project.

The grant, “Postconviction Testing of DNA Evidence to Exonerate the Innocent in Michigan,” will help defray the costs associated with post-conviction case review, evidence location and DNA testing where the results may show actual innocence of convicted felons in Michigan.

In 2001, the WMU-CLSIP was specifically established to review cases under Michigan’s post-conviction DNA testing law, MCL 770.16. It is the only Michigan DNA project of its kind. The DNA statute provides a remedy for those wrongfully convicted incarcerated persons who are innocent of the charged offense and whose innocence can be established by DNA testing of the biological evidence collected at the time of the offense.

“This grant allows our undergraduate students to use their education to engage in their community while promoting social justice,” said Principal Investigator Ashlyn Kuersten, associate professor of gender and women’s studies at WMU. “I cannot imagine a better way for WMU students from diverse backgrounds and majors to connect their knowledge with experience."

The project is a teaching clinic that trains law students and undergraduate students to screen cases of wrongful conviction. Establishing the existence of evidence can be extremely difficult because of the age of the case and because of the disarray of many of the property rooms of local law enforcement agencies.

The project is part of the Innocence Network, which has been credited with the release of over 329 wrongfully accused prisoners mainly through the use of DNA testing. In its short life, the project has exonerated three individuals.

Undergraduate students at WMU can take a course in the spring that will allow them to understand the factors common in wrongful convictions, such as police and prosecutorial misconduct, plea bargaining, eyewitness misidentification, false confessions, the use of jailhouse informants, unreliable forensic evidence and, particularly, ineffective assistance of counsel.  Part of their course work will require them to screen applications to prepare them to intern for the actual Innocence Project where they will work with law students in reviewing case files, conducting interviews, analyzing cases and representing innocent clients in court. They will also assist assigned attorneys with research and pleadings for post-conviction proceedings.

Since its inception in 2001, the project has screened over 5,300 cases and the requested funding for investigators, experts and testing is critically important to support its current case review and the expected increase in cases resulting from the referral of approximately 200 cases from the New York Innocence Project who will no longer be taking Michigan cases.

"The grant will help us continue the important work of exonerating innocent Michigan citizens and train students in best practices," said Co-investigator Dr. Marla Mitchell-Cichon, who is also director of the Cooley Innocence Project at the WMU-Cooley Law School.

The grant allows the project to hire a full-time attorney and part-time file clerk. It also mutually benefits undergraduate students and law school students by allowing them to understand the challenges faced by the criminal justice system in Michigan.

Kuersten has been a faculty member at WMU since 1997, first with the Department of Political Science and, since 2013, in the Department of Gender and Women’s Studies.   Her research focuses on the role of race and gender in constitutional law. 

Mitchell-Cichon has been teaching at the WMU-Cooley Law School since 1995. Her research focuses on the areas of criminal law, elder law, ethics, and clinical teaching.

Dr. Mark Hurwitz, professor of political science, is also a co-investigator for the project. He focuses his research on judicial politics in federal and state courts, judicial behavior and judicial selection and diversity, and is editor of Justice System Journal.

WMU-Cooley Law School has five campuses, offering Juris Doctor and Master of Laws degrees.