Lack of funding has stalled a massive forensic project aimed at clearing people wrongfully convicted of serious crimes.

Virginia Department of Forensic Science director Peter Marone says the department has applied for a $4.5 million federal grant to complete the effort.

The project began in 2005 when then-Governor Mark Warner ordered examination of all case files kept by former state forensic serologist Mary Jane Burton from 1973 through 1988 after five men were cleared of rape due to biological evidence she kept in their cases. Burton meticulously preserved pieces of clothing smeared with blood, semen or saliva even before DNA testing got underway in the early 1990s.

Warner put aside $1.4 million for the project, which was expected to require searches of 164,000 old case files. Instead, more than 534,000 old paper case files have had to be searched, and samples in 366 cases have been sent off to an independent lab for testing.