A Reform Agenda for Texas

The Justice Project is focused on three main goals in Texas designed to fight the epidemic of wrongful convictions and to increase fairness and accuracy in the Texas criminal justice system.

Improve the Quality of Evidence in Criminal Cases

Jurors must rely on the evidence presented to them during a criminal trial to reach an informed verdict that achieves justice. Too often, the quality of the evidence they receive is inaccurate or incomplete. To improve the quality of evidence in criminal cases, The Justice Project seeks to:

Improve eyewitness procedures – Eyewitness misidentification was the main factor is over 80 percent of all Texas’ DNA-documented wrongful convictions.

• Learn about cases involving problems with eyewitness identification in Texas
• Other eyewitness identification resources

Improve the practice of forensic science — Forensic science is becoming increasingly relied upon, but Texas has only recently begun to guarantee the integrity of such results.

• Learn about Texas failures in forensic science
• Learn about the status of reform in Texas
• See the consequences of faulty forensic analysis

Implement electronic recording of custodial interrogations — Electronic recording of custodial interrogations is a powerful fact-finding tool for the criminal justice system and helps proect against false confessions.

• Learn how recorded interrogations could have prevented wrongful convictions in Texas

Expanding discovery in capital cases — Discover preserves the integrity of our adversarial criminal justice system but Texas fails to guarantee the opportunity for evidence to be fully investigated and meaningfully challenged.

• Learn about how unfair discovery robs Texas of justice
• See the consequences of unfair discovery

Create an official mechanism to review errors in wrongful conviction cases

Texas has a responsibility to investigate serious miscarriages of justice so that they are not repeated. Unfortunately, Texas has no official mechanism for investigating wrongful convictions.

• Learn about the need for better government oversight in the state of Texas

• Support for better government oversight of our criminal justice system

Reform the Texas indigent defense system

Texas leads the nation in executions but fails to guarantee that those who cannot afford legal representation will receive an effective defense.

• Learn about the problems with indigent defense in Texas (Austin American Statesman, 10/06)
• Learn about The Office of Capital Writs

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