Friday Roundup: Compensation and Law Enforcement Training

Wayne County, MI and the city of Houston will receive grants from the US Department of Justice to

study untested rape kits

.

The Palmetto Innocence Project of South Carolina sponsored a free seminar for South Carolina law enforcement officials, prosecutors and other legal professionals last Friday to

review advancements in identification methods and recording of interrogations

.

Scott Pierpont was exonerated in North Carolina in January after spending nearly 18 years behind bars for a crime he didn’t commit and was

denied his request for a formal pardon of innocence

, which would entitle him to $750,000 in compensation.

Exoneree Jeffrey Deskovic

received a $6.5 million settlement with Westchester County, NY

in a federal-civil rights lawsuit earlier this week.

University of Virginia Law School professor Brandon Garrett published the

second installment of his Slate series on wrongful convictions

. His first installment – covered by the Innocence Blog

earlier this week

– focuses on the issue of eyewitness identification. The second addresses false confessions, using the case of Innocence Project client Frank Sterling as its central example.