Texas Wrongful Convictions
Texas currently leads the nation in wrongful convictions exposed by DNA. To date, 38 people have had their convictions overturned in Texas as a result of DNA testing on evidence from the case. These 38 men have spent 507 years in prison for crimes that they did not commit. By studying these cases of wrongful conviction, we have learned the common causes of wrongful conviction, with eyewitness misidentification playing a role in over 84% of all wrongful convictions exposed by DNA in Texas. Each time we discover that another Texas has been wrongly imprisoned, it undermines the public’s confidence in our criminal justice system and allows a real perpetrator to go free.
While DNA exonerations provide shocking evidence that innocent people are, in fact, convicted and sentenced to prison, it is also important to remember that DNA evidence is only available in a fraction of cases, and several exonerations have occurred without the aid of DNA evidence. Many more innocent people, however, may not have the benefit of biological material to test and prove their innocence. Work must be done to improve the criminal justice system to limit wrongful convictions altogether, not just in cases where DNA evidence is available. To accomplish this, The Justice project works with other criminal justice organizations, exonerated individuals, police officers, jurors, lawyers, legislators, and the public to enact comprehensive reform that addresses the severity and immediacy of the problem in Texas.
