Leahy honored for helping wrongfully convicted
All in all, not a bad guy to be represented by in the Senate.
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On Thursday, the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project honored Leahy’s work on behalf of the wrongfully convicted. The group investigates innocence claims, some based on DNA evidence, and provides pro-bono legal assistance in the mid-Atlantic region.
The Vermont Democrat’s Innocence Protection Act, passed in 2004, includes the Kirk Bloodsworth Post-Conviction DNA Testing Grant Program, which has helped exonerate at least 15 innocent people.
The “Champion of Justice” award was presented by Bloodsworth, the first death row inmate exonerated through DNA evidence.
“Sen. Leahy is indeed a champion of justice,” Bloodsworth said in a statement. “His entire life has been to right injustice, which I know full well. It has been an honor as the advocacy director for Witness to Innocence and the first death row inmate exonerated by DNA to know the senator and call him friend."
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Leahy’s bill to reauthorize the “Justice for All Act,” which includes the Innocent Protection Act, will move forward in the Senate Judiciary Committee, which Leahy chairs.
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http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/article/20130711/NEWS03/307110026/Leahy-honored-helping-wrongfully-convicted