"Judge orders DNA testing for man executed in 2000," is the title of Cindy Horswell's report in today's Houston Chronicle.
Claude “Butch” Jones’ last request before his execution just before Christmas 10 years ago was an emotional telephone call to his son in Houston who had never known his father until they were reunited on death row.
The son, Duane Jones, now 49, remembers pointedly asking his father whether he had robbed and murdered the liquor store owner in San Jacinto County.
“I told him he had nothing to lose by telling the truth now,” Duane Jones said. “But my father continued to remain adamant that he didn’t do it.”
While the younger Jones, an associate engineer, thought his father was being truthful, he could never be certain — but now that may change.
Visiting Judge Paul C. Murphy this week ordered testing of a strand of hair from Claude Jones’ case that death penalty opponents believe might provide the first DNA proof that an innocent man was executed.
Murphy issued a summary judgment in favor of the New York-based Innocence Project and The Texas Observer, an Austin newsmagazine, which three years ago petitioned to do mitochondrial DNA testing on a hair fragment recovered from the counter of Zell’s liquor store in Point Blank, about 65 miles north of Houston.
San Jacinto District Attorney Bill Burnett, who had assisted in the prosecution and died this month from pancreatic cancer, blocked the hair’s release. He argued state law provided no legal avenue for him to relinquish the 1-inch strand after Claude Jones’ death.
Neither Burnett’s attorney, David Walker, nor the first assistant, Jonathan Petix, who has temporarily replaced Burnett, could be reached for comment on whether they will appeal.
Meanwhile, the younger Jones remains guardedly optimistic.
“It would mean a lot to me to know the truth, but it is really more important or paramount that the justice system know the truth,” he said. “If our state is going to be the execution capital of the free world, then it needs to be above reproach.”
In 2000, Claude Jones was the 40th and last person executed in Texas that year, which set a national record.
Duane Jones’ does not see himself as a so-called bleeding-heart liberal opposed to the death penalty, as his own family knows what it’s like to be a crime victim. He survived a bullet to the back of his head during a robbery in 1986, and his wife was the target of a home invasion just two months ago.
The latest AP filing is "Texas judge orders DNA test decade after execution," written by Jeff Carlton.
For the second time in a year, the guilt of an inmate executed in Texas is in doubt after a judge ordered DNA testing on a strand of hair that was the only physical evidence linking a man to the murder for which he was killed 10 years ago.
Judge Paul C. Murphy ordered testing done on a 1-inch-long strand that helped prosecutors convict Claude Jones of capital murder in the 1989 shooting death of liquor store owner Allen Hilzendager near Point Blank, about 75 miles north of Houston.
"This is a DNA test that could prove someone was wrongly executed," said Barry Scheck, the co-director of the Innocence Project, a New York-based legal center that helped ensure the preservation of the strand of hair.
Jones, a career criminal and paroled murderer, always insisted he was innocent. He died in 2000, the last of 40 inmates executed in Texas that year and the last of 152 inmates put to death during former President George W. Bush's time as governor.
Murphy, a retired appellate judge assigned to the case, ordered the test Friday. In April in a separate case, a state forensics panel renewed its review of a questionable arson finding that led to the 2004 execution of Cameron Todd Willingham, who was convicted of setting the fire that killed his three children.
According to the Innocence Project, Texas leads the nation with 40 DNA exonerations. Gov. Rick Perry issued the state's first posthumous pardon of a DNA exoneree in March. Tim Cole, wrongly convicted of a 1985 rape, died in prison of complications from asthma in 1999.
In Jones' case, a hair analysis expert linked the strand to Jones at his trial. The other primary evidence was testimony from an accomplice, who later acknowledged in an affidavit that he had no firsthand knowledge of the killing and said he testified against Jones to get himself a lighter sentence.
The single strand of hair allegedly belonging to Jones inexplicably survived, although it was supposed to have been destroyed years ago after the case was resolved. In 2007, a state district judge ordered it preserved to leave open the possibility of DNA testing after the Innocence Project, other innocence groups and The Texas Observer, a biweekly magazine, sought a temporary restraining order preventing its destruction.
And:
The hair must be transferred to a laboratory within 60 days, according to the order. The tests could link the hair to Jones, one of his alleged accomplices or the victim. It also could be a stray hair.
Scheck said if the test proves the hair did not come from Jones, it will show the state had no grounds on which to convict. In Texas, a defendant cannot be convicted on the testimony of an accomplice unless there is corroborating evidence, he said.
The Dallas Morning News runs the AP item, "Update: Executed man's case reviewed."
Earlier coverage of the case begins with this post.
All Willingham coverage is available through the Todd Willingham category index.
The Beyler report prepared for the Forensic Science Commission is here in Adobe .pdf format.
David Grann's September 2009 New Yorker article is noted here. Steve Mills and Maurice Possley first reported on the case in a 2004 Chicago Tribune series on junk science. The December 9, 2004 report was titled,"Man executed on disproved forensics."The Innocence Project has a Todd Willingham resource page which provides a concise overview of the case with links to all relevant documents.
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