… Funds will help fund full-time staff attorney position, other operational costs
OXFORD, Miss. – For the third year in a row, the Mississippi Innocence Project in the University of Mississippi School of Law has been awarded a $50,000 grant by the Mississippi Bar Foundation.
The award is made possible through the Mississippi Interest on Lawyers Trust Account Program and from Rule 6.1 through the Mississippi Bar. The IOLTA program was established by order of the Mississippi Supreme Court as a source of funding for legal aid to the poor, law-related public education programs and improving the administration of justice. Since its inception in 1984, the program has awarded more than $11 million in grants.
“IOLTA funds have been critical to us in meeting our missions and goals,” said Tucker Carrington, Mississippi Innocence Project director. “Last year’s grant helped fund a full-time staff attorney position. This year’s (award) will do the same.”
IOLTA funding helped solidify the project’s presence, Carrington said. “The grant is a sustaining gift – one that we think is indicative of what partnerships like this can do when they work together,” he added.
Established in 2007, the Mississippi Innocence Project is committed to providing the highest quality legal representation to its clients: Mississippi state prisoners serving significant periods of incarceration who have cognizable claims of wrongful conviction. The project seeks also to identify and address systemic problems in the criminal justice system and to develop initiatives designed to raise public and political awareness of the prevalence, causes and societal costs of wrongful convictions.
For additional information on the Mississippi Innocence Project, go to http://www.
For more information on the Mississippi Bar Foundation or the IOLTA program, visit http://www.msbar.org/