Tag Archives: innocence

Two for Timothy Cole

Posted on May 18, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

On Friday, the House concurred with Senate amendments to HB1736, the Timothy Cole Act that increases compensation to those that have been wrongly convicted. I had said on Monday that it had passed both chambers at that time, but I … Continue reading →

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Monday Lege roundup

Posted on May 11, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

Lots of legislative action today beyond the voter ID vaudeville act. Here’s a quick roundup of some other bills of interest. – HB1736, also known as the Tim Cole Act for the man who was posthumously exonerated this February, has … Continue reading →

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Updates on some criminal justice bills

Posted on May 9, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

As Grits notes, this is the time of the session in which bills die because there’s no longer the time for them to make it through the process. Fortunately, as he writes in that post, many of the bills related … Continue reading →

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Busy day yesterday

Posted on April 25, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

There were a lot of bills passed yesterday by one chamber or the other. My mailbox is full of press releases touting them. I’m going to go ahead and print them beneath the fold as a roundup. A few bills … Continue reading →

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Videotaping interrogations

Posted on April 24, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

One of Sen. Rodney Ellis’ many criminal justice reform bills has passed the Senate. Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, won Senate approval of a measure intended to encourage the recording of police interrogations. Ellis said his Senate Bill 116 arose out … Continue reading →

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Rodney Ellis

Posted on April 7, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

Nice profile of State Sen. Rodney Ellis, which talks about his propensity for introducing long-shot bills, and his persistence in getting some of them passed over the course of multiple sessions. This bit summarizes it well: “Occasionally, Senator Ellis will … Continue reading →

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Innocence, exoneration, and compensation

Posted on March 31, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

We’ve seen all of the stories about inmates being freed from jail in Texas after however many years inside, the result of DNA evidence proving they could not have committed the crime for which they were convicted. But what happens … Continue reading →

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Regional crime lab

Posted on March 30, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

This has been talked about for some time, and not unexpectedly it’s starting to move forward. After years of scandal at crime labs across the state, local officials have proposed opening a regional lab based at the Harris County Medical … Continue reading →

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Your eyes may deceive you

Posted on March 26, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

The Chron covers a report by the Justice Project about faulty eyewitness testimony and the many wrongful convictions to which it has led. Most wrongful convictions in Texas stem from mistaken eyewitness identifications, errors that experts say could have been … Continue reading →

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On DNA testing and innocence

Posted on March 13, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

I’m glad to hear that District Attorney Pat Lykos is going to examine cases of wrongful conviction in Harris County. I’m sure there are plenty more than the five she plans to highlight, but the fact that she wants to … Continue reading →

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CSI: Needs Improvement

Posted on February 20, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

Looks like Gil Grissom got out at just the right time. Crime labs nationwide must be overhauled to prevent the types of mistakes that put innocent people in prison and leave criminals out on the street, researchers have concluded. A … Continue reading →

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All DNA, all the time

Posted on February 18, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

How often should we collect DNA from someone who’s been arrested? Some people think the answer should be a lot more often than we do now. Texas is one of several states that draw DNA samples from anyone convicted of … Continue reading →

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Exonerating the deceased

Posted on February 4, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

One of the things Eric Berger focused on in his story about the relevance and importance of Charles Darwin some 200 years after his birth was the rise of DNA and its application to criminology. Today, DNA evidence is as … Continue reading →

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Innocence

Posted on January 27, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

Lisa Falkenberg examines what Circuit Judge Jacques L. Wiener Jr. referred to as “the elephant in the room” in granting a stay of execution to Larry Swearingen. The nation’s highest court hasn’t directly addressed whether a claim of actual innocence … Continue reading →

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Swearingen gets a stay

Posted on January 26, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

Thank goodness. Accused killer Larry Swearingen has been granted a second stay of execution. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit handed down the ruling this morning. Swearingen was set to be executed by injection on Tuesday. “We’re … Continue reading →

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More on Larry Swearingen

Posted on January 23, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

I’ve blogged before about Larry Swearingen, who is on death row and is scheduled for execution on January 27 even though forensic evidence clearly demonstrates his innocence of the murder of Melissa Trotter. Multiple experts, including the Harris County medical … Continue reading →

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How many wrongly convicted people are there in prison?

Posted on January 22, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

A new study takes a crack at quantifying it. Criminal justice scholars often say that the true number of innocent people convicted of crimes is unknown–in fact, unknowable. A new University of Michigan study challenges that belief in one important … Continue reading →

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