New Report Analyzes Texas Wrongful Convictions Exposed by DNA and the Reforms that Can Prevent Them
Austin, TX - A new report released today by The Justice Project analyzes the cases of thirty-nine innocent Texans who collectively spent more than five hundred years in prison for crimes they did not commit. Convicting the Innocent: Texas Justice Derailed also presents reforms Texas must implement in order to improve the quality of evidence used in criminal cases and reduce the risk of wrongful convictions.
The report finds that while DNA analysis is an invaluable tool, it alone cannot prevent the wrongful convictions that arise from unreliable evidence. The report also analyzes the many costs to society each time a wrongful conviction occurs, including the crimes committed by the actual perpetrators following the conviction of the wrong person.
Among the report’s key findings:
- Innocent Texans exonerated by DNA spent about 548 years in prison for crimes they did not commit.
- Eyewitness misidentification is the leading cause of wrongful convictions exposed by DNA in Texas, present in eight-five percent of wrongful conviction cases.
- Other factors leading to Texas wrongful convictions include: false confessions and guilty pleas, suppression of exculpatory evidence, false testimony from informants or accomplices with incentives to lie, false forensic testimony, and unreliable or limited forensic methodologies.
The full report is available here.
“It is essential to learn from these mistakes when they are discovered,” said Edwin Colfax, director of state reform campaigns at The Justice Project, “so that we can address systemic flaws and ensure the most reliable evidence possible in our courts.”
The report details how the devastation these cases have wrought begins with the wrongly convicted, but extends out to the family members, jurors and victims who become embroiled in a terrible injustice. According to the report, “In each of these innocence cases, a criminal investigation into a serious, violent crime was shut down prematurely when authorities prosecuted the wrong person.”
Legislation is pending in the Texas Legislature that would reform eyewitness identification procedures, require electronic recording of custodial interrogations, and increase safeguards against unreliable informant testimony, among other reforms.
