Great North Innocence Project sees $600K grant slashed due to federal funding cuts
Source: WCCO (CBS affiliate, Twin Cities)
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'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.
Read more: https://www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/news/great-north-innocence-project-funding-cuts/
200 to 300 people write to the organization each year asking the non-profit to take its case.
Having read various Innocence Project stories over the years, it is horrifying to read examples of people incarcerated for decades for crimes they didn't commit, and who were nailed with only the sketchiest of evidence, and/or testimony of someone who hoped to have their own sentence reduced for "cooperating". Or even after some informer admitted to lying. And the rationale of the literal holes who are against this kind of work because they worship "closure".
This is just one local Innocence organization, but no doubt it is not the only one that has, or will soon have, its federal funding cut by the present psychopathic administration.
May 9, 2025 / 5:32 PM CDT
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