II 

117TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 2772 

To provide Federal support to entities performing reviews of wrongful 

convictions. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

SEPTEMBER 21, 2021 

Ms. KLOBUCHAR (for herself and Mr. CORNYN) introduced the following bill; 

which was read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary 

A BILL 

To provide Federal support to entities performing reviews 

of wrongful convictions. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Conviction Integrity 

5 Act of 2021’’. 

6 SEC. 2. GRANT PROGRAMS TO ENSURE CASE REVIEW, REP7 RESENTATION, AND PROVIDE POST-CONVIC8 TION RELIEF. 

9 (a) PURPOSE.—The Attorney General shall admin10 ister grant programs within the Bureau of Justice AssistVerDate Sep 11 2014 04:18 Sep 22, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2772.IS S2772

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•S 2772 IS

1 ance, to encourage the review of possible cases of wrongful 

2 conviction and facilitate post-conviction relief by estab3 lishing or expanding State and local conviction integrity 

4 units and by providing high-quality representation for de5 fendants litigating post-conviction claims of innocence. 

6 (b) CONVICTION INTEGRITY UNIT GRANTS.— 

7 (1) ELIGIBLE ENTITY DEFINED.—In this sub8 section, the term ‘‘eligible entity’’ means a prosecu9 tor’s office or a State attorney general’s office that 

10 may work in partnership with a nonprofit organiza11 tion, law school innocence clinic, or public defender’s 

12 office dedicated to receiving petitions for or review13 ing wrongful convictions and wrongful sentences. 

14 (2) AUTHORIZATION.—The Attorney General, 

15 acting through the Director of the Bureau of Justice 

16 Assistance, shall make grants to eligible entities for 

17 the purpose of creating State and local conviction in18 tegrity units or entities. 

19 (3) APPLICATION REQUIREMENTS.—Each appli20 cation for a grant under this subsection shall— 

21 (A) demonstrate a plan by the applicant to 

22 create, maintain, or expand a State or local 

23 conviction integrity unit with the intention to 

24 conduct substantive, evidence-based conviction 

25 review; 


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1 (B) develop a tool to survey or conduct 

2 focus groups with community members, non3 profit organizations, or public defender offices 

4 dedicated to receiving petitions for or reviewing 

5 wrongful convictions, and existing local Convic6 tion Integrity Units in order to identify— 

7 (i) the needs of individuals or their 

8 counsel seeking review of their convictions 

9 or sentences; and 

10 (ii) the needs of existing local convic11 tion integrity units and non-profit organi12 zations or public defender’s offices dedi13 cated to receiving petitions for or reviewing 

14 wrongful convictions; 

15 (C) use the information gathered under 

16 subparagraph (B) and conviction integrity unit 

17 best practices to advise procedural conduct in 

18 conviction review; 

19 (D) develop procedures to ensure that con20 viction integrity unit is able to operate inde21 pendently in rules and practice from the other 

22 units within the district attorney’s offices or 

23 any prosecutors previously involved with the 

24 case; 


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1 (E) in the case of a prosecutor’s office that 

2 cannot meet the requirement in subparagraph 

3 (D) because of the size of the office, provide a 

4 written policy detailing reasonable steps that 

5 shall be taken to preserve independence and 

6 ethical integrity during the investigation; 

7 (F) allow for meaningful participation in 

8 the review process by petitioner’s counsel; and 

9 (G) develop victim notification procedures 

10 for final exonerations as appropriate. 

11 (4) PREFERENCE.—In awarding grants under 

12 this subsection, the Attorney General shall give pref13 erence to applicants who demonstrate a partnership 

14 with a nonprofit organization, law school innocence 

15 clinic, or public defender’s office dedicated to receiv16 ing petitions for or review wrongful convictions and 

17 wrongful sentences. 

18 (5) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.— 

19 There are authorized to be appropriated 

20 $10,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2022 through 

21 2027 to carry out this subsection, of which not more 

22 than 5 percent of the grant funding shall be used for 

23 training and technical assistance for grantees. 

24 (c) WRONGFUL CONVICTION REVIEW GRANTS.— 


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1 (1) ELIGIBLE ENTITY DEFINED.—In this sub2 section, the term ‘‘eligible entity’’ means a non-prof3 it organization, institution of higher education, or 

4 State or local public defender office that has in5 house post-conviction representation programs that 

6 show demonstrable experience or competence in liti7 gating post-conviction claims of innocence. 

8 (2) AUTHORIZATION.—The Attorney General 

9 shall establish a wrongful conviction review grant 

10 program and award grants to eligible entities for the 

11 purpose of providing high-quality post-conviction 

12 representation for defendants in post-conviction 

13 claims of innocence. 

14 (3) USE OF FUNDS.—A grant awarded under 

15 this subsection shall be used to support an eligible 

16 entity in providing— 

17 (A) post-conviction legal representation of 

18 innocence claims; 

19 (B) case review, evaluation, and manage20 ment; 

21 (C) experts; 

22 (D) potentially exonerative forensic testing; 

23 and 

24 (E) investigation services related to sup25 porting these post-conviction innocence claims. 


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1 (4) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.— 

2 There are authorized to be appropriated 

3 $30,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2022 through 

4 2027 to carry out this subsection. 

Æ 


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