by TChris

The North Texas Innocence Project will bring together faculty and students from six universities who will join defense lawyers in investigating the possible innocence of convicted inmates.

The project will be based primarily at the University of Texas at Arlington and the Texas Wesleyan University School of Law, with 40 criminal-justice and law-school students working with lawyers on the cases. The UT-Arlington students, who have been meeting for almost a year, have identified a murder in Tyler, a sexual assault in Dallas and a robbery in Fort Worth for further review.

Under the direction of licensed lawyers, the local students will work with law students from Texas Tech University, Texas Southern University and the University of Houston as well as journalism students from the University of St. Thomas in Houston.

Innocence projects are always needed. This one had the support of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, which successfully urged the Texas legislature to provide funding.