FIRST-YEAR
ASSOCIATE HELPS
ESTABLISH
OREGON INNOCENCE PROJECT
U
ntil this spring, Oregon was the only state in the U.S. without an organization dedicated to actively investigating wrongful convictions in criminal cases.
That has changed with the establishment of the Oregon Innocence Project, which DWT first-year associate Kimberly McCullough has helped to initiate. The new group held its launch party on April 9 at the Portland offices of Stoel Rives, with Barry Scheck as featured speaker. DWT was among the sponsors. McCullough was the main organizer for the event, which attracted nearly 200 attendees. The new initiative is a joint project of Portland’s Metropolitan Public Defender Services, Inc. and the Oregon Justice Resource Center (OJRC) at Lewis & Clark Law School in Portland. The OJRC assists with trial and appellate litigation on behalf of indigent, prisoner, and low-income clients in federal and state courts on a range of civil liberties and civil rights matters.