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Notre Dame Law School’s Exoneration Justice Clinic has secured another grant from the Bureau of Justice Assistance at the U.S. Department of Justice.
The $462,000 grant, combined with a $300,000 grant from 2021, brings the EJC’s total funding to $762,000, according to the law school.
“In just three years, the Exoneration Justice Clinic, led by Professor Jimmy Gurulé, has achieved remarkable success, securing two substantial grants from the Department of Justice,” Dean G. Marcus Cole said in a statement. “This recognition is a testament to the clinic’s commitment to justice, and the dedication and hard work of Prof. Gurulé, the staff, and our students.”
The EJC was one of six innocence clinics nationwide to be selected for funding by the DOJ through the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant program.
The money will support the hiring of a second full-time staff lawyer to focus on the intake process for case selection, and the retention of a full-time, in-house investigator for two more years. The EJC is one of the few innocence clinics in the country that employs a full-time investigator, according to the law school.
Gurulé, the founder and faculty director of the Exoneration Justice, submitted both grant proposals.
“This recognition and confirmation by the DOJ speak to the quality and credibility of the work we are doing, and the very important progress we have made as a new clinic,” Gurulé said in a statement. “It shows the confidence the DOJ has in our program and the impact we are making.”
The grant will also allow the clinic to take on more cases and expand student opportunities to work on clinic cases.
“Two awards in the last two years for a clinic that has been in operation for only three years is very impressive,” Gurulé said.
Prior to the announcement of the most recent DOJ grant funding, the clinic announced it had been selected to receive a $3 million grant from the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs to administer a program for the defense of Mexican nationals in criminal matters in the U.S.
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