Innocence lost: Efforts to stop wrongful convictions supported



LONGVIEW NEWS-JOURNAL
Tuesday, February 17, 2009

The Texas House has been a bit slow this session to appoint 
committees, largely because there's a new speaker in town, and the 
party split is razor-thin at 76-74. Speaker Joe Straus did a good job 
splitting committee chairmanships between the two parties, with 
Republicans holding 18 chief spots to 16 for Democrats. Perhaps there 
really will be a return to the bipartisanship that used to mark the 
Legislature in the days of Bob Bullock and, yes, George W. Bush.

Now that work has actually begun on considering the bills that have 
been filed to this date, our hope is legislators will expand 
protection against the chances of being wrongfully convicted. The 
revelation recently concerning a Texas inmate who died in prison 
after being wrongfully convicted — and ultimately cleared by 
posthumous DNA testing — has spurred attempts to expand DNA testing 
in the state.

Right now, anyone convicted of a felony or arrested for violent 
crimes undergoes DNA testing. Anyone arrested for a federal crime is 
also tested. A number of Texas police chiefs and advocates for people 
wrongfully convicted support expanding DNA testing to anyone arrested 
in Class B misdemeanors. While some civil liberties groups are wary 
this is a potential infringement on privacy rights, it seems to us an 
efficient way to ensure the innocent do not go to jail for crimes 
they did not commit. For example, a first-offense DWI is a Class B 
misdemeanor punishable by up to 180 days in jail.

We believe the state should conduct DNA testing on anyone arrested 
for a felony and not limit it to those convicted. And we support 
expanding it to Class B misdemeanor arrests, as well.

Along with expanding DNA testing, legislators will consider 
establishing an Innocence Commission, a notion supported by state 
Supreme Court Justice Wallace Jefferson and once again pushed this 
session by state Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston. The state panel would 
be bipartisan. Its members would be chosen by legislators, judges and 
law school deans. It would investigate all post-conviction 
exonerations and develop solutions and ways to prevent wrongful 
convictions from occurring.

As Jefferson, a Republican, said, "No system of justice is successful 
if it leads to the incarceration of citizens who have committed no 
crime."

Other bills would set standards for police lineups and require 
electronic interrogation of suspects in custody, according to the AP. 
We support these measures, as well; because they protect the suspect 
and law enforcement officials alike. An electronic record of an 
interrogation can belie claims of police brutality, for example.

In this decade alone, nearly three dozen Texas inmates have been 
exonerated by DNA testing. Jailing an innocent person does 
irreparable damage to our system of justice. The measures outlined 
above would help ensure that is much less likely to happen.

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