Reforms Needed to End Injustices

That's the title of an editorial in today's San Antonio Express-News. 

A strand of hair was the single piece of evidence linking Claude Jones with a 1989 murder that took place in Point Blank, north of Houston. By the forensic standards of the day, the hair was a match — enough to put Jones on death row. And it was the key evidence cited in a 3-to-2 decision of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to keep him there.

The strand of hair had, however, never been tested for a DNA match with Jones — until last month, when a lab in Pennsylvania found conclusive evidence that the DNA in the hair matched the murder victim, not Jones.

That would be good news for Jones, if he were still alive. The state of Texas executed him on Dec. 7, 2000, with Jones maintaining his innocence.

And:

A statute that allows post-conviction DNA testing took effect in Texas in 2001. More reforms are needed.

At the state level, the Tim Cole Advisory Panel on Wrongful Convictions — named after another man who died while serving time for a crime he did not commit — has made 11 recommendations to the Legislature. They include the establishment of uniform policies for eyewitness identification, recording interrogations, legal discovery proceedings and post-conviction proceedings, as well as the creation of a Texas Innocence Commission.

At the national level, a bipartisan bill in the Senate would create a National Criminal Justice Reform Commission. The commission would identify best practices in the states that protect the innocent and enhance public safety.

There are now enough cases to demonstrate that injustices occur even in the most serious cases that supposedly have the most safeguards. Correcting those injustices should be a state and national priority.

More on the Claude Jones case at the link.  Earlier coverage of the Timothy Cole Advisory Panel on Wrongful Convictions begins with this post.  The panel's the Report and a volume of Research Details are available in Adobe .pdf format.  More on Tim Cole's wrongful conviction and posthumous exoneration  begins here.