Texas has a very high rate of these exonerations because we are looking for them. These are being led by the Dallas county Prosecutor’s office. There is no better way to ensure that the justice system is in fact just, than to root out and publicize past injustice.
Name one other state where the PROSECUTOR’s office has taken the lead on this. We have a new tool available in DNA, and in those cases where the DNA evidence is still accessible, we compare it to the incarcerated individual. If it’s not a match, then we let the person out.
Dallas County DA Craig Watkins deserves international recognition for this effort, and it should be replicated around the country.
Like any human endeavor, the criminal justice system is imperfect. We are just trying to be less so.
Don’t be so smug if your state is not doing this. You also have innocent people in jail, but you are leaving it to their own resources for them to assert their innocence. Texas has brought STATE resources to this problem.
There needs to be some accountability that results in punishment of prosecutors who railroad the innocent. To many liberal attorneys become prosecutors because it allow them to run for office while pretending to be conservative.
That is apparently lost on people. Wrongful convictions are nothing new, but taking the time and resources to use newer technology to find those cases when possible, admitting the wrong, compensating the victim of that wrong as well as possible takes a different mindset than the usual "sweep it under the rug and call the record clean" mentality.
It is highly commendable that there is an effort to right injustice, and let the chips fall where they may.