LU Director of Forensics, working on Soering's case, bringing Innocence Project to school

LYNCHBURG, Va. (WSET) -- Liberty University is looking into starting an innocence project that would work allow falsely incarcerated people to go free and put away the bad guys.

In labs, like the one at Liberty University, the director of forensics found that Jens Soering's DNA was not present at the crime scene and it's work like this they want to do in their innocence project.

"I would like to see justice through science to find the truth," said Dr. Tom McClintock.

Liberty Univesity's Dr. McClintock is working to get the Liberty University forensics lab accredited so they can work on cases like Soering's, who's serving time for first degree murder and work to see who's guilty and who should be set free in cold cases, wrongful convictions, and ongoing investigations.

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"It's rewarding, but, yes, it can be very powerful because DNA speaks for itself," said Dr. McClintock. "It doesn't lie."

Dr. McClintock has worked about 400 cases and recently became involved in the high profile case of Soering.

According to tests on the evidence still remaining from the crime scene, the DNA belongs to one, if not two other males, but not Soering.

"He's not a potential contributor of that DNA to the crime scene," Dr. McClintock said. "What we could not do just a few years ago, we are now capable of doing."

The innocence project would work with Dr. McClintock's undergraduate students, law students, and criminal justice students.

Liberty would be the only school in the country where an innocence project would have their lab on campus, according to Dr. McClintock.

He's working to get the project started in the fall of 2019 or 2020.