Lawyers ready to tackle 200 requests for DNA review



By JAMES PINKERTON
HOUSTON CHRONICLE
Aug. 8, 2009

Karen Warren Chronicle

Last week, Harris County court officials appointed three Houston
attorneys to review requests to retest DNA evidence filed by
defendants convicted with DNA evidence. The team is reviewing 200
pending requests filed by Harris County defendants under a new law
that took effect in 2001, and they say 12 to 15 new requests are made
each month. The team includes veteran appellate defense attorney Bob
Wicoff, 58, defense attorney Thomas A. Martin, 54, and former
prosecutor Kelly Smith, 41.

Q: Where are you in the process?

A (Wicoff): We're just starting. Next week, or the week after, we're
going to get a list of (200) cases that are pending.

Q: What does your crystal ball tell you the end result might be in
terms of exonerations among the 200 cases?

A (Wicoff): Who knows? Maybe zero; maybe 30. Who knows?

Q: What do you hope to accomplish?

A (Wicoff): All we're doing for this project is people who have
requested DNA testing. And what the statute calls for is that if
there is evidence which, if tested, shows there is exculpatory
results such that there would not have been a conviction had that
been known at the time of the trial, that's what we're trying to
establish.

Q: How is this different from review of blood testing (serology)
cases from the lab?

A (Wicoff): The big problem with these serology (blood) cases is
they're 20, 25 years old. The evidence is, by and large, gone.
Whereas on the DNA cases, some are fairly recent. So hopefully there
will be more evidence left to test.

Q: How many cases do we have in the DNA category?

A (Smith): Apparently there are an identified number of (DNA) cases
that are just lingering, that no action has been taken on ... there's
200 of those.

Q: What is the possibility in Harris County of all defendants
convicted with faulty evidence ever getting justice?

A (Martin): Not every person that comes through this project is going
to find an acquittal at the end. For a lot of the situations there
may not have been evidence properly reserved and eligible for
retesting. But when there is exculpatory evidence, that person
deserves the chance to have it retested ... and they deserve their
new day in court.

Q: How likely is that?

A (Martin): We've seen instances not only here in Harris County
recently but nationwide, where new DNA testing procedures and
protocol have come up with exculpatory results for clients. I think
that's important, and I think we're going to see that in this case.

Q: Are there good reasons to operate a regional crime lab?

A (Wicoff): One good reason, and we've seen this on the serology
project, is when you have a lab as a part of a law enforcement
agency, it becomes rather incestuous. And we have found instances in
the serology review of lab technicians actually changing the result
to fit what we can only surmise has been told to them as to what the
right result should be. We got a confession here, this guy is good
for the crime, now we need objective scientific testing. A regional
lab would, presumably, solve that.

Q: What should citizens think about the effort to make sure those
accused of a crime are actually guilty?

A (Wicoff): There's reason for hope. When I tell you the DA's office
is taking the approach that unless there's a compelling reason not to
do (DNA) testing, we're going to do testing and agree to it, that's a
huge improvement. There are a lot of people in prison who perhaps
shouldn't be there, and there is no remedy for people whose evidence
has been destroyed.

A (Martin): That's a tragedy.

james.pinkerton@ chron.com

http://www.chron. com/disp/ story.mpl/ metropolitan/ 6565799.html