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Jun 6, 2008 7:27 am US/Central

Dallas DA Gets Nearly $500,000 For DNA Testing

DALLAS (AP) ―

The Dallas County District Attorney's Office has received a $453,900 grant to help review requests for post-conviction DNA testing.

The grant awarded Thursday was from the New York-based Justice, Equality, Human Dignity and Tolerance Foundation. It will pay for DNA testing, computers, travel expenses and three positions at the Innocence Project of Texas. That group is helping the DA review cases for post-conviction DNA testing.

Under District Attorney Craig Watkins, Dallas County has begun a program in which law students, supervised by the Innocence Project of Texas, are reviewing hundreds of requests by inmates for post-conviction DNA testing. They are also looking at requests denied under previous District Attorney Bill Hill.

Since 2001, DNA testing has cleared 33 Texans who spent a combined 427 years in prison, according to The Justice Project, a Washington, D.C.-based group. During the same period, 18 men convicted in Dallas County have had their convictions tossed aside after DNA testing.

(© 2008 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

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