Questions

Two questions I get asked a lot. 1. how can you defend someone accused of a crime and 2. why are you against the death penalty.

This story provides the answer to both:

DNA evidence clears Dallas man of rape charges after 27 years in prison
05:52 AM CST on Thursday, January 3, 2008
By STEVE McGONIGLE / The Dallas Morning Newssmcgonigle@dallasnews.com

Dallas County's record-setting list of innocent inmates cleared by DNA testing grew to 15 Wednesday when officials learned that Charles Allen Chatman could not have committed a rape for which he has served almost 27 years in prison. .
. Also Online
Other cases cleared since 2001 ..

State District Judge John Creuzot, who pushed for the genetic test that cleared Mr. Chatman, scheduled a hearing for this morning during which he is expected to order the 47-year-old man released on a personal bond and find him to be innocent.

"My attitude is that if the man is innocent, he needs to be free," the judge said.
The judge shared a steak lunch with Mr. Chatman in his courtroom after learning the test results. Mr. Chatman spent part of the afternoon being fitted for a new suit.
He has been serving a 99-year prison sentence for the 1981 rape of a Dallas woman during a home break-in. He is believed to be the longest-serving Dallas County inmate to be exonerated by genetic testing.

His attorney, Michelle Moore, described Mr. Chatman as "very, very nice." Most of his family died while he was in prison, she said. He probably suffers from learning disabilities and does not know how to use a computer or cellphone.

"He's lost his life," said Terri Moore, the first assistant district attorney.
A year ago, Judge Creuzot used the occasion of another inmate's exoneration hearing to urge District Attorney Craig Watkins to determine whether Mr. Chatman would be a candidate for a relatively new form of DNA testing known as Y-STR.

The judge, who filed for re-election Wednesday, said he became concerned after presiding over two previous DNA hearings on Mr. Chatman's case that the convicted man might be innocent.
The earlier tests on the rape kit taken from Mr. Chatman's alleged victim had proved inconclusive because of a small amount of genetic material. Mr. Chatman had been told that a third test might consume the remainder of the sample.

He recently agreed to the Y-STR testing, which has proved successful in identifying genetic markers from tiny DNA samples. The testing was performed by a Dallas laboratory before Christmas, and results excluded Mr. Chatman.

Ms. Moore, the defense attorney, and Mike Ware, the prosecutor overseeing the DNA testing, credited Judge Creuzot with pushing them to pursue testing.

Mr. Chatman, who remains in the Lew Sterrett Justice Center and could not be reached for comment, was four months shy of his 21st birthday when he was arrested by Dallas police in January 1981 and charged with aggravated rape. At the time, he was on four years' probation for a 1978 residential burglary conviction.

Picked in lineups
Mr. Ware, head of the district attorney's conviction integrity unit, said the rape victim first selected Mr. Chatman from a photographic lineup. She identified him a second time in a live lineup, Mr. Ware said.

Prosecutors said they were attempting to notify the victim Wednesday that Mr. Chatman had been cleared of the rape. She was said to be living in a nursing home.
Mr. Chatman's exoneration, which must be approved by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, would mark the 15th time since a new testing law took effect in 2001 that a Dallas County conviction has been discredited by DNA.

Most of those faulty convictions occurred during the tenure of District Attorney Henry Wade, whose office had a national reputation for hard-nosed prosecution.
The majority of the wrongful convictions included lineups or eyewitness identifications that often were uncorroborated by other evidence.

No other county in the nation has had as many exonerations by DNA.
That unenviable status prompted Mr. Watkins, a former criminal defense attorney, to launch his conviction integrity unit and agree to review almost 400 cases in which inmates had requested DNA testing and been denied.

'Sloppiness ... going on'
A partnership between Mr. Watkins and the nonprofit Innocence Project of Texas has reviewed about 80 cases and recommended that testing be done in eight. The review process on the remaining cases is expected to last another year, Mr. Ware said.

Ms. Moore, the first assistant to Mr. Watkins, said she was pleased the office was able to correct the wrong to Mr. Chatman. But she said she also was angry.

"What offends me about this is the sloppiness that was going on," she said. "You are supposed to turn over every stone. You are supposed to know what the truth is."

In addition to its review of cases for possible genetic testing, the prosecutor's office also wants to learn whether it can identify patterns that led to the wrongful convictions, Ms. Moore said.

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I would suggest the book Actual Innocence by Barry Scheck and Peter Nuefled and Jim Dwyer. There is a companion photobook called "The Innocents" photos by Tayrn Simon, commentary by Scheck and Nuefeld. I also strongly suggest "Tulia" by Nate Blankslee about the framing of local blacks by a out of control cop and all of the trouble to undo those convictions. John Grisham wrote a non fiction book calls Innocent Man that discusses several men convicted of crimes they did not commit.
I can go on and on. The fact is our system is not perfect, but it is better than the rest.
My state and my former law school have now started an innocence project here.