Texas Criminal Justice Integrity Unit
In response to the wave of Texas wrongful convictions, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on June 3, 2008, announced the establishment of the Texas Criminal Justice Integrity Unit (TCJIU). CCA Judge Barbara Hervey, who made the announcement, called the TCJIU “a call to action to address the growing concerns with the criminal justice system.”
The announcement comes less than a month after The Justice Project participated in a summit on wrongful convictions at the Texas Capitol in Austin.
Judge Hervey said the TCJIU intends to focus on issues relating to wrongful convictions, including improving the quality of defense counsel for indigent defendants, implementing procedures to improve eyewitness identifications, eliminating improper interrogations to protect against false confessions, reforming the standards for the collection, preservation and storage of evidence, and improving crime lab reliability.
“The Texas Criminal Justice Integrity Unit could help address the injustice of wrongful conviction by working to build consensus around policies that will increase the fairness and accuracy of the Texas criminal justice system,” said Edwin Colfax, director of state programs for The Justice Project. “To be effective, the TCJIU should conduct a fair, thorough and open examination of the problems and produce recommendations that the Texas Legislature and Governor Perry will adopt. We look forward to helping the TCJIU achieve that goal.”
The members of the Texas Criminal Justice Integrity Unit include:
- Judge Barbara Hervey, Texas Court of Criminal Appeals
- Rodney Ellis, Texas Senate
- Mary Anne Wiley, General Counsel to Governor Perry
- Bill Allison, Clinical Professor of Law/Director, UT Criminal Defense Clinic
- Pat Johnson, Director, Texas DPS Crime Lab
- James McLaughlin, General Counsel/Executive Director, Texas Police Chief’s Association
- Craig Watkins, Dallas County District Attorney
- Jaime Esparza, El Paso County District Attorney
- Jim McReynolds, Texas House of Representatives
- Gary Udashen, Criminal Defense Attorney, Dallas
- Judge Sid Harle, District Judge, San Antonio
- Jim Bethke, Director, Texas Task Force on Indigent Defense
CCA press release about the Texas Criminal Justice Integrity Unit (pdf)
