The Past Never Goes Away, Thank Goodness
In an excellent article in today's New York Times, the contributing publication Texas Tribune outlined the 86 exonerations which have been granted in Texas in recent years. By putting a face with most of these tragedies and stories behind them, the Tribune has aided in putting this on the upcoming legislative agenda.
I have taken a few minutes to break this down by category to try to understand this vexing problem:
COUNTIES OF EXONERATIONS:
Dallas 37
Harris 13
Travis 7
McLennan 3
Tarrant 3
Montgomery 3
Rains 2
El Paso 2
Lamb 2
Counties with 1 14
RACE
Black 42
White 28
Hispanic 11
Other or Unknown 5
GENDER
Male 81
Female 5
CHARGE
Sex Assault 43
(Including Children)
Murder 32
Robbery 6
Others 5
SENTENCES
Death 10
Life 33
60-99 7
40-59 12
20-39 14
0-19 7
Probation 1
REASONS FOR EXONERATION (May be more than one per case)
Post-Conviction Evidence 56
(DNA, Recantation, etc.)
Prosecutorial Mishandling of Evidence 20*
(Withholding, Coercion, etc.)
Faulty Eyewitness Identification 12
Ineffective Assistance of Counsel 6
Use of Inadmissible Evidence 5
False Confession 3
Unreliable Forensic Science 3
Police Misconduct 2
*The Texas Tribune categorized the admission of another defendant's statement as prosecutorial misconduct. I prefer to label this as an erroneous ruling by the Court.
For the complete interactive, please go to this link.