Today's Houston Chronicle reports, "Ellis works to halt wrongful convictions." It's written by Bobby Cervantes.
In the decade since state lawmakers last addressed wrongful convictions, Texas has earned the distinction of having the highest number of exonerations based on DNA evidence in the nation.
At least 42 men from a dozen Texas counties have leveled successful DNA challenges to their convictions, according to the Innocence Project of Texas.
In light of that, Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, is hoping a fresh move toward criminal justice reform will elbow its way to the forefront in a session jammed with a massive budget shortfall, redistricting and a raft of contentious measures, such as voter ID and anti-illegal immigration legislation.
Ellis is proposing an "Innocence Protection Package," four bills aimed at decreasing the number of wrongful convictions in Texas. Rep. Pete Gallego, D-Alpine, is the package's sponsor in the House.
"I tried to pick things that I thought were very much in the mainstream of criminal justice reforms that shouldn't cost money, that will save money," Ellis said. "They've been well-vetted and (have) broad-based support."
State lawmakers in 2009 created a panel to examine the issue of wrongful convictions and propose reforms. After a year-long investigation, the 11-member panel of legislators, judges and legal groups last August recommended changes for the 82nd Legislature.
Ellis' bills include many of the panel's suggestions, including uniform procedures for eyewitness identification, requiring investigators to record interrogations in serious felonies, streamlining defendants' appeals for DNA testing, and reorganizing Texas' indigent defense task force.
The eyewitness ID and DNA testing bills passed the Senate last session, but stalled in the House.
In 85 percent of exoneration cases, mistaken eyewitness identification sealed the defendants' guilt, according to the Innocence Project of Texas. In many counties, no uniform or documented eyewitness policies exist, the group said.
Under Ellis' bill, law enforcement agencies would have to develop written procedures for using suspects' photographs in line-ups and conducting live line-ups.
GOP opposition unlikely
Rep. Jerry Madden, R-Plano, who served on the House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee last session, said he could not see a GOP effort to block Ellis' bills if they are in line with recommendations from the Texas Criminal Justice Integrity Unit, which Judge Barbara Hervey, of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, launched in 2008.
The unit includes Hervey, Ellis and reform advocates, including Jim Bethke, director of the Taskforce on Indigent Defense, and Barry Scheck, director of the New York-based Innocence Project.
"I have pretty good confidence that some of those things will move forward and would be passed," Madden said. "If they're different, they'd have to be looked at."
I believe that the legislation is actually from the recommendations of the Timothy Cole Advisory Panel on Wrongful Convictions. There is an overlap in the membership of that body, created by the last legislature, which issued its report late last year, and Judge Hervey's Criminal Justice Integrity Unit.
The Cole Panel 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.
Earlier coverage of the Task Force on Indigent Defense, Texas Criminal Justice Integrity Unit, and the Timothy Cole Advisory Panel on Wrongful Convictions, at the links.
The Ellis-Gallego legislation on eyewitness identiciation procedures is SB 121/HB 215. The Ellis/Gallego legislation on electronic recording of custodial interrogations is SB 123/HB 219. Senator Ellis' bill on post-conviction DNA testing is SB 122. Rep. Gallego and Sen. John Whitmire have filed the campanion bills SB 317/HB 220, on post-conviction testing of forensic evidence.
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