MORGANTOWN, W.Va.—The West Virginia Innocence Project, a clinic at the West Virginia University College of Law, has received an award from the Morgantown Human Rights Commission.
The award is given annually to an organization in recognition of International Human Rights Day on December 10.
Marjorie McDiarmid, director of the clinical law program, and Melissa Giggenbach, director of the West Virginia Innocence Project, accepted the award from Jacob Powers, chair of the Morgantown Human Rights Commission.
“It requires painstaking work on the part of the students first to identify and then to advocate for clients who have been wrongfully convicted. This award goes to those students and the faculty and staff who work with them,” McDiarmid said.
In receiving the award, Giggenbach expressed her appreciation for the support that the law clinic receives from the community and the college.
“This support allows us to not only provide good representation for those who have been wrongfully convicted but also provides a platform to educate about and address the inequalities that exist within our criminal justice system,” she said.
The West Virginia Innocence Project receives support from the law firm Wilson, Frame & Metheney, PLLC.
Photo courtesy of WBOY-TV.
-WVU-
MG/12/9/19
