The Dallas Morning News has an editorial today, Justice Without Doubt: "Questionable death cases call for review." It reviews the Chicago Tribune reporting on the Carlos DeLuna case and the need for a proper state investigation. LINK
Yet, as in other recent cases, the state is impotent in the matter because it lacks an apparatus to delve into questions of fatal error. And the Nueces County district attorney's office has indicated no interest in re-examining the case. This sense of cold indifference is a disservice to Texans who care about the quality of justice in each of 368 executions carried out in their names since 1982.
The facts of the De Luna case make a powerful argument for action.
And:
The De Luna case is troubling enough taken alone, but it must be considered alongside two other capital murder convictions brought into question in recent months:
•That of Cameron Todd Willingham, executed in 2004 for the arson-slayings of his three young children in their Corsicana home. Expert testimony in his prosecution has since been discredited as based on outmoded forensic science. Local officials nevertheless maintained they got the right man.
•Ruben Cantu, executed in 1993 for the robbery-slaying of a construction worker in San Antonio based solely on eyewitness testimony. The eyewitness recanted last year, saying police leaned on him hard to finger Mr. Cantu as the killer.
Also, Houston Chronicle columnist Rick Casey looks at the DeLuna case today. LINK
As the San Antonio District Attorney's Office continues to investigate the possibility that Texas wrongfully executed a man there in the wake of dogged investigative work by my colleague Lise Olsen, here comes the Chicago Tribune with a compelling case that the same thing may have happened in Corpus Christi.
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