The Dallas Cowboys have received a compensatory fourth-round pick in the 2012 NFL Draft, per Rob Phillips from dallascowboys.com:
Cowboys get a fourth-round compensatory pick, 40th in the round (135th overall), in April's draft.
— Rob Phillips (@robphillips3) March 26, 2012
The Cowboys received the compensatory pick for losing Stephen Bowen to the Washington Redskins in free agency last year. The Cowboys also lost Sam Hurd, but signed Abram Elam, those players are also somehow factored into the mysterious formula the NFL uses. The NFL handed out a total of 32 picks to fifteen different teams. Cleveland, Green Bay and the New York Jets topped the list with four draft picks each.
The Cowboys' pick is the ninth highest pick awarded this year. Only one team, the Raiders, received a third-rounder this year. The full list of compensatory picks can be found here.
That brings the Cowboys' total to eight draft picks this year. Barring any trades (or another round of completely arbitrary penalties by the NFL and the Maras) the Cowboys will pick once in every round and twice in the fourth.