Vermont Business Magazine Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont), joined by Senators John Cornyn (R-TX), Thom Tillis (R-NC), and Amy Klobuchar (MN), Thursday introduced the Patrick Leahy and Orrin G. Hatch Justice For All Reauthorization Act of 2022.  The Justice for All Act was originally enacted in 2004 as a groundbreaking piece of bipartisan criminal justice legislation, authored by a bipartisan coalition of senators including Leahy.  

Leahy and Cornyn led the reauthorizations of the Justice For All Act in 2013 and 2016.  The programs authorized under the Justice for All Act improve forensic science and access to justice, increase the fairness and accuracy of the criminal legal system, and enhance protections for crime victims.

This reauthorization notably expands the opportunities to address wrongful convictions.  The bill codifies the more than 10-year-old Wrongful Conviction Review program to provide grants for high quality investigations and representation in post-conviction claims of innocence.  The bill also creates a pilot conviction integrity review grant program within prosecutors’ offices.

Leahy said: “I am both humbled and proud to introduce the Patrick Leahy and Orrin G. Hatch Justice for All Reauthorization Act of 2022 with Senators Cornyn, Tillis and Klobuchar, and I thank them for deciding that our proposed law would be named for the late Senator Orrin Hatch and me.  Our bill builds on the bipartisan work I began with Senator Hatch more than 20…