DALLAS (AP) — The Texas prosecutor leading an aggressive push to free wrongly imprisoned inmates, in a county where more than two dozen wrongful convictions have been overturned, is calling for a review of the capital punishment system in the nation's busiest death penalty state.
Craig Watkins' tenure as Dallas County's top prosecutor has earned him a national reputation. Now, as Watkins …
[Read more...]
AP Interview: Texas DA seeks death penalty review
February 24, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Beyond DNA, Difficult Tests for the Justice System
December 29, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Freeing the wrongfully convicted through science was the easy part. Now what?
The scene this mid-November night felt more like a clip from Leave It To Beaver than Law and Order. Dale Duke sat with his elderly parents eating dinner in their quiet Dallas home. A crystal vase of red roses decorated the dining room table; soft classical music played in the background. The family dressed neatly …
[Read more...]
Saloom: NY dithers on evidence reform
December 1, 2011 By Leave a Comment
The recent inspector general report about theNassau County police crime laboratory characterized the facility's failures as a "tortured history of significant problems." The investigation, ordered by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, found long-standing problems with how evidence was handled at the lab. Leadership sidestepped the issue. State agencies responsible for oversight and guidance proved unable or …
[Read more...]
Failing the DNA test
November 18, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Massachusetts is one of only two states in the country without a law granting prison inmates the right to test DNA evidence that might prove their innocence. A lingering, long-contested bill may finally change that.
“Dennis, put on Channel 4. Put on Channel 4!”
The year was 1993, and Dennis Maher was returning to his cellblock after a shift at the Bridgewater Massachusetts Treatment Center …
[Read more...]
Edwards: Improving witness IDs in Georgia would curb wrongful convictions
November 8, 2007 By Leave a Comment
By Michael Edwards, Savannah Morning News
"The vagaries of eyewitness identification are well-known; the annals of criminal law are rife with instances of mistaken identification."
These are not my words or those of Barry Scheck or any of the witnesses who have appeared before the Eyewitness Identification Study Committee conducting hearings in Atlanta. These are the words of the United …
[Read more...]