The Coalition for Truth and Justice

A Texas prosecutor plans to review some 40 pending death penalty cases, after several recent instances in which capital convictions were overturned, by DNA testing.

Dallas prosecutor Craig Watkins said his goal in reviewing the cases is "to make sure that an innocent person won't be executed" in Texas, which carries out the most executions in the United States a year.

The state's most recent execution occurred on Wednesday, when convicted murderer William Murray was put to death for the murder and rape of a 93-year-old woman.

The Stand-down Texas Project, a criminal justice watchdog group, reports the Lone Star State, carries out more than 36 percent of all the executions in the country.

This year so far, Texas accounts for more than 40 percent of the executions carried out across the United States.

Watkins made his decision to review death penalty cases in Texas, after forensic tests showed there have been 19 cases since 1991 in which suspects convicted of capital murder were later cleared of the crimes, once DNA genetic evidence was introduced.

"I just can't stand by if there is a possibility that someone innocent could be executed," said Watkins.

He added exonerating falsely convicted inmates, especially those convicted in error of capital crimes, "is my responsibility", and added he hoped that other prosecutors around the United States would follow his example.

The Texas Department of Criminal Justice said it has scheduled 10 more executions this year, with five additional already on the docket for 2009.

Amnesty International (AI), in a report entitled "Lethal Injustice," accuses the Texas criminal justice system of "failing to meet minimum international standards for the protection of human rights", particularly in how it doles out the death penalty.

"AI is concerned at the low standard of legal representation afforded to many of those facing the death penalty, the appeals courts' unwillingness to examine the fairness and constitutionality of convictions and sentences, and at the racial manner in which the death penalty is applied," the human rights group said in the report, which appears on its website.

In late August, DNA tests exonerated a man who had been on Texas death row for 14 years for the murder of a young girl, said the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC).

Michael Blair, who had been sentenced to life in prison for other crimes, will remain in prison, but will be taken off Death Row, and the investigation into the 1993 murder case will be re-opened.

Blair was the 130th Death Row inmate to be exonerated during his lifetime since executions resumed in the United States three decades ago, and the fourth this year, said the DPIC.

http://www.thetimes .co.za/News/ Article.aspx? id=847088