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Team Roc donates $1M to KC-based Midwest Innocence Project

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Posted at 1:41 PM, Oct 12, 2021
and last updated 2021-10-12 14:42:07-04

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A Kansas City-based organization working to overturn wrongful convictions is receiving a $1 million donation from Team Roc.

Team Roc is the philanthropic arm of Jay-Z's entertainment company, Roc Nation.

Midwest Innocence Project (MIP) works to free wrongfully convicted people in Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska.

The group was founded by the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law.

Advocates with the organization helped to free local man Ricky Kidd, and are ready to assist with Kevin Strickland's case for exoneration

.

MIP was linked with Roc Nation in recent weeks when the entertainment company called for an investigation into the Kansas City, Kansas, Police Department.

Team Roc alleges police misconduct filed a lawsuit saying KCKPD failed to turn over documents that might show officer misconduct.

The group also ran a full-page ad in the Washington Post against KCKPD and asking federal officials to start an investigation.

It alleged allegations of rape, murder, sex trafficking and corruption within the department.

That letter was co-signed by MIP.

It wasn't immediately clear how MIP would allocate the funding.