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DNA Testing For Innocence Funded in Dallas

By TChris, Section Innocence Cases
Posted on Thu Jun 12, 2008 at 09:40:46 PM EST
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Finally, some good news from Texas.

District Attorney Craig Watkins is using a $453,900 grant from the New York-based Justice, Equality, Human Dignity and Tolerance Foundation to pay for post-conviction DNA testing. With the help of law students, Watkins' office is reviewing hundreds of requests by inmates, including requests denied under the previous district attorney. The grant also requires Dallas County commissioners to fund the DA's office for two additional years.

The grant also funds three positions at the Innocence Project of Texas. Money well spent.

This attempt to free wrongly convicted people comes at a time when there is a proliferation of cases overturned by new DNA evidence nationwide. In Texas since 2001, DNA testing has cleared 33 people who spent a combined 427 years in prison.

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    DNA Testing For Innocence Funded in Dallas | 4 comments (4 topical)

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    Great news. (5.00 / 0) (#1)
    by A little night musing on Thu Jun 12, 2008 at 09:46:11 PM EST
    I have nothing substantial to add. But this makes me happy.

    I'm personally opposed to the death penalty, but certainly (I guess) all of us hope that it's not applied to people who were wrongfully convicted. A better use of public funds I couldn't imagine.

    P.S. (none / 0) (#2)
    by A little night musing on Thu Jun 12, 2008 at 09:52:33 PM EST
    [I'm tired and it's late]

    I realize that I left myself open to being misunderstood.

    • I realize these are not public funds. My opinion is that if we have the death penalty in place, public funds should be available for projects such as this.

    • But in a [Bush-engineered] era of scarce public funds: I'm not going to start trying to judge who gets first dibs. [I work for a public university, people!] We've got to fix what is broke first.

    OK, enough of my hand-wringing hijacking.

    Parent
    conviction mistakes are troubling to me for more (none / 0) (#3)
    by thereyougo on Fri Jun 13, 2008 at 12:54:52 AM EST
    than the obvious reasons.

    The expense of prisons in California is making the governor think about early release of some inmates.We're building prisons more than I want to fund. It costs 60 Gs to keep an inmate warehoused in Calif. As a taxpayer, I don't like  the bill that never stop growing.

    People who are innocently convicted contribute to the  strain caused by a bloated prisons.

    I'm happy to see this project funded.

    I agree, this is good news from Texas. (none / 0) (#4)
    by sarcastic unnamed one on Fri Jun 13, 2008 at 11:58:12 AM EST


    DNA Testing For Innocence Funded in Dallas | 4 comments (4 topical)

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