The StandDown Texas Project

Eyewitness ID Reform Measure Passes House Committee

"Eyewitness ID legislation aims to prevent conviction of the innocent in Texas," is the Dallas Morning News report written by Erin Mulvaney.

A bill meant to streamline eyewitness identification procedures, approved Tuesday by a House committee, would bring the state a step closer to fixing a key problem with the criminal justice system, advocates said.

Under the legislation, police departments would have to adopt uniform standards for eyewitness identification.

The House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee approved the bill unanimously after hearing from criminal justice officials and emotional testimony from half a dozen exonerees from Dallas, who spent years in prison for crimes they did not commit. The measure will now go to the full House for consideration.

“This bill has special importance for Dallas County, has tremendous public interest and support,” said Rep. Will Hartnett, R-Dallas. “It deserves a head start to get it passed and out of the House.”

The exonerees made emotional appeals to lawmakers. James Giles, a Dallas man exonerated in 2007, told the lawmakers that he was picked out of a lineup and accused of rape, although he had never seen the victim before. He spent 10 years in prison and 14 years as a registered sex offender on parole.

“[The victim] picked me out of all the guys in the photo book she was given,” Giles said. “The system will work, but it takes one person to say what is right and, believe you me, everyone will follow.”

Policies for gathering eyewitness identification would have to be based on scientific research on memory, along with relevant policies and guidelines developed by the federal government and other states. Policies would have to address the selection of photographs, lineup filler photographs or participants and instruction given to witnesses. The Blackwood Law Enforcement Management Institute of Texas at Sam Houston State University would create a model policy to be distributed to local law enforcement agencies.

Texas has had 42 exonerations, 38 in cases that had been based on false eyewitness identification. The tally accelerated when the Legislature created a clear pathway for requesting DNA testing in 2001, said Edwin Colfax, a project manager at the Task Force on Indigent Defense.

Four states — Ohio , North Carolina , New Jersey and Wisconsin — have implemented legislation similar to the eyewitness identification bill.

Criminal Court of Appeals Judge Barbara Hervey, a member of an expert panel that was commissioned by the Legislature in 2009 to study the causes of wrongful convictions and make recommendations, called the bill a great step forward.

And:

Cory Session, the brother of Timothy Cole, who died in prison in 1999 and was posthumously exonerated, and for whom the panel studying wrongful convictions was named, warned that without the bill, the criminal justice system will continue to make too many mistakes.

“It is time for us to move forward and get out of the dark ages with wrongful convictions,” said Session, a policy director for the Texas Innocence Project.

He suggested enforcing a procedure used by the Dallas Police Department for identification — a sequential, double-blind lineup. In this process, the administrator does not know which participant is the suspect and presents suspects to a witness one by one.

The method has been proved more effective in other states, Session said.

The committee also discussed two other bills related to preventing convictions of the innocent. One would require law enforcement officers to record interrogations for violent, serious crimes. The other addresses writs of habeas corpus, which order that people in custody be brought before a court. The proposed measure would extend the limit for the writs filed under certain circumstances.

The AP report, by Sommer Ingram is,  "Bill to reduce wrong convictions passes committee."  It's via the Houston Chronicle.

A Texas House committee advanced legislation Tuesday that would require law enforcement agencies to standardize the way eyewitnesses identify suspects in an effort to reduce the number of wrongful convictions.

The House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee voted to require agencies to adopt a written policy based on a model or create something similar to determine how they conduct photographic or live lineups. Currently only 12 percent of agencies in the state have written policies.

To avoid unintentionally influencing the witness, the person administering the lineup would be prohibited from knowing who the suspect in the case is. The procedures would be written based on reliable research on eyewitness memory and relevant policies developed by other governments and agencies.

Advocates say the issue is one of the most important in criminal justice, and lawmakers have long seen a need for reform in this area of the system. Texas leads the nation in the most convicts exonerated by DNA evidence, with more than 40 people released from prison since 1994.

Seven men who spent decades imprisoned for crimes they didn't commit testified before the committee in support of the legislation. They said they wouldn't have lost years of their lives behind bars if the lineup process had been conducted differently.

And:

The bill's author, Rep. Pete Gallego, D-Alpine, said mistaken eyewitness identification is the leading cause of wrongful convictions and amending the identification process is a crucial step to fixing the problem. Ohio, North Carolina, New Jersey and Wisconsin have implemented similar reform legislation.

"The idea is to establish a fairly uniform way of doing things across the state, whether in a small town or a large county, so we have some understanding of this process," Gallego said.

Gallego said if an agency doesn't comply with the law, its non-compliance could be acceptable as evidence in court but does not bar admission of the eyewitness identification testimony.

The bill grows out of recommendations from the Timothy Cole Advisory Panel on Wrongful Convictions, named after the first Texan to be posthumously exonerated of a crime by DNA testing. Cole was wrongly convicted of a rape he did not commit in 1986 and died of complications from asthma in 1999 while serving his 25-year sentence.

The article also notes that Governor Perry has pledged to sign the bill.

Details of HB 215 are available from Texas Legislature Online.

The other two bills considered by the Committee, also recommended by the Timothy Cole Advisory Panel on Wrongful Convictions, are HB 219 and HB 220.  Both bills are also sponsored by Gallego.  HB 219 deals with electronic recording and admissibility of certain custodial interrogations.  HB 220 deals is procedures for applications for writs of habeas corpus based on relevant scientific evidence.  Those two bills remain in the Committee, but are likely to be voted out at its next meeting.

Earlier coverage begins at the link. 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.

Rodney Ellis' Legislative Agenda - Preventing Wrongful Convictions

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.

Criminal Justice Integrity Unit News

Today's Dallas Morning News reports, "Judge Barbara Hervey, Texas Criminal Justice Integrity Unit working to educate officials about issues with forensic science," by Erin Mulvaney.

Barbara Hervey first noticed flaws in the criminal justice system when she was a law student, robbed at gunpoint on the San Antonio Riverwalk.

She could perfectly remember the gun and the face of the man who pointed it at her head. But police pressed her, even after she protested that she couldn’t, to identify his two accomplices.

Now a Texas Court of Criminal Appeals judge, Hervey thinks of that incident when she hears about mistaken eyewitness identifications.

“I knew how easily it could happen. You’re under that kind of stress, thinking, ‘I’m going to die any minute.’ In that moment, you aren’t thinking about your testimony in court,” she said.

In 2008 she launched the Texas Criminal Justice Integrity Unit to educate everyone from police to judges on problems with evidence, including arson science, which is at the center of the Cameron Todd Willingham case, a 2004 execution that has drawn national scrutiny.

As a special court hearing on the Willingham case has been delayed until Oct. 14, the integrity unit is convening a session Thursday in Austin on forensic science, including how arson evidence is examined.

Garnering less publicity than the court hearings, the session nevertheless has attracted more than 420 participants — prosecutors, judges, defense lawyers, law professors and crime lab experts.

So many signed up that an overflow room was added and the seminars, including crime lab procedures and science experts, will now be streamed on the Internet.

It was when Texas began reviewing cases, led by advances in DNA technology, that Hervey decided to do something to fix the system. Since the reviews began in 2001, the state has exonerated more than 40 wrongly convicted people, with more than two-thirds of the bad cases linked to mistaken eyewitness identifications.

And:

Bill Allison, an integrity unit member and director of the University of Texas School of Law’s Center for Actual Innocence, said that there may be 750 inmates in prison for arson and that the state has no clue what the standards are for investigation and admitting fire science evidence.

“The questions aren’t going to get easier, they are going to get harder,” he said.

Even judges have a hard time keeping up, Hervey said. A survey in conducted in the spring asked judges about forensic science and the standards for allowing certain expert testimony and evidence.

The survey showed that the majority acknowledged they had little to no knowledge of the basics of forensic science and its use in trials. The results became a catalyst for the Austin seminar.

Earlier coverage is here, and in the Texas Criminal Justice Integrity Unit index.

 

Texas Criminal Justice Integrity Unit Issues 2009 Report

The Texas Criminal Justice Integrity Unit, formed by Court of Criminal Appeals Judge Barbara Hervey in 2008, has issued it's second annual report.  The 2009 Annual Report of Activities is available in Adobe .pdf format.

The Integrity Unit also has a new website.  The members have been fostering an active dialogue between judges, prosecutors, the defense bar, and law enforcement advancing knowledge of root causes of wrongful convictions.  The work is shaping continuing professional education and training programs among those in the criminal justice sector.

More Arson Understanding Needed in Courts, Judge Says

That's the title of Chuck Lindell's report in today's Austin American-Statesman, referring to Judge Barbara Hervey of the Court of Criminal Appeals.  LINK

A judge on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, which has the power to overturn death sentences and halt executions, wants to improve the criminal justice system's understanding of fire science in the wake of a possibly flawed arson investigation in the Cameron Todd Willingham case.

Willingham was executed in 2004 for killing his three young children by setting fire to his Corsicana house.

Judge Barbara Hervey said her interest in the issue was piqued by recent reports that Cameron's conviction relied on bad science, now-disproved theories and personal bias from arson investigators.

"Science progresses all the time, and we need to have a better understanding of fire science," Hervey said Tuesday.

Last week, Hervey ventured to the state archives building to read Willingham's court file, which included the first report — by Austin chemist Gerald Hurst — to question the 1991 arson ruling.

The Court of Criminal Appeals dismissed that appeal, filed four days before Willingham's execution, ruling that Hurst's findings should have been raised earlier.

Hervey, who joined the court in 2001, said she came away from her reading with no conclusions about Willingham's case but with a desire to have the Texas Criminal Justice Integrity Unit investigate fire science.

Hervey created the unit last year to improve the justice system in areas such as police interrogation, eyewitness identification and evidence preservation.

The panel includes politicians, lawyers, law enforcement members and legal experts.

"Arson is not something (courts) deal with on a regular basis," Hervey said. "The one thing I think we can accomplish is to at least educate people" about improvements in fire science and arson investigative techniques.

The integrity unit, Hervey said, would complement work being done by the Texas Forensic Science Commission.

And:

The Senate Criminal Justice Committee has invited the science commission's new chairman, Williamson County District Attorney John Bradley, to give an update on the Willingham inquiry at a Nov. 10 public hearing in Austin.

"There's obviously a lot of interest in this case, and we'll want to see whether he intends to pursue the report by (Beyler)," said Chairman John Whitmire, D-Houston.

Bradley declined to comment Tuesday, saying: "Out of respect for Senator Whitmire and his committee and my fellow commission members, I will hold my thoughts until the committee meets."

Earlier coverage of Judge Hervey's Criminal Justice Integrity Unit is here.  Earlier coverage of the Todd Willingham case begins with this post.

Texas Criminal Justice Integrity Unit Issues Report

Judge Barbara Hervey's office has released a report of the group's 2008 activities,  I've put a link in the right column Reports section.  It can be downloaded, here, as well.  Here's the brief introduction:

This report discusses the activities, research findings, and progress of the Texas Criminal Justice Integrity Unit (TCJIU).  It summarizes activities for June 2008 through January 2009.

  Established in June 2008, the TCJIU held its first formal meeting in August 2008.

The TCJIU was created to review the strengths and weaknesses of the Texas

criminal justice system.Furthermore, the TCJIU’s purpose is to bring about meaningful reform through education, training, and legislative recommendations.It is not a forum for any particular group, nor does it embrace the plan of one particular political party.

Coverage of the Unit is here.

False Confessions

The topic of false confessions was front and center at today's meeting of the Texas Criminal Justice Integrity Unit.  The Integrity Unit was formed last year by Court of Criminal Appeals Judge Barbara Hervey to examine widely acknowledged problems in the criminal justice system.

Richard Leo, an Associate Professor at the University of San Francisco School of Law, an expert on false confessions, provided an overview of the problem and solutions.  He recommended that all custodial interrogations be recorded, thus creating an objective record of what happened.

Leo outlined three distinct types of false confessions; voluntary, compliant, and persuaded. 

He noted that false voluntary confessions are often seen, and generally weeded out, in high profile cases such as the JonBenet Ramsey case. 

Compliant false confessions come about to avoid stress, or end the interrogation; often as a result of threats or promises made during the interrogation.  Leo cited Chris Ochoa's false confession as an example. 

Persauded false confessions occur because the person being interrogated has no memory of the event, but becomes conviced that s/he must have committed the crime because of statements made by the interrogator that there is physical evidence linking the suspect to the crime.  Leo said such confessions may occur over prolonged interrogations, and Leo said he believes Austinite Michael Scott's confession to be a persuaded false confession.  It's important to note that police are able to lie about available evidence during interrogations in order to obtain confessions.  Leo said that people who have abused drugs and alcohol may be especially suseptable to giving persuaded false confessions.

Michael Scott is one of two men awaiting new trials in Austin's yogurt shop murders.  Leo said he believes that the other yogurt shop defendant, Robert Springsteen, also falsely confessed to the crime.  Leo cited the two Austin men's cases as proof that videotaping custodial interrogations alone is not an absolute solution, though he believes the practice greatly reduces the potential for false confessions to proceed.

Leo said that it was important to catch false confessions as early as possible because they are so prejudicial to a case -- what is more convincing of guilt than a defendant's confession.  He described the rush to judgment from a false confession as a snowball.

10 states currently mandate electronic recording of custodial interrogation because of state court ruling or legislation.  He cited Wisconsin and Minnesota as leaders in the practice.  In past legislative sessions State Senator Rodney Ellis has introduced bills to mandate recording interrogations.  Today, Judge Hervey said that she is working with Senator John Whitmire on another version such a bill.  Integrity Unit members Jerry Madden and Jim McReynolds, both members of the Texas House, expressed interest in working on such legislation in the 81st Texas Legislature, which convened at noon today.

Leo added that law enforcement agencies that record the interviews never want to return to days of untaped sessions, but agencies that have not begun taping are extremely reluctant and resistant to try the practice.

Leo also cited Tom Sullivan's work persuading law enforcement agencies to record custodial interrogations.  Sullivan is a former U.S. Attorney who co-chaired the Illinois Governor's Commission on Capital Punishment.

Another Take on the Criminal Justice Integrity Unit Meeting

Jordan Smith also has, "Integrity Unit Members Hunker Down," in the Austin Chronicle.

Although the members of the new Texas Criminal Justice Integrity Unit met for the first time Aug. 6, Court of Criminal Appeals Judge Barbara Hervey, who created the unit, says that members are already hard at work, looking at a myriad of issues that effect the quality of criminal justice in Texas.

Responding to years of complaints about problems with the state's criminal justice system and the growing number of wrongfully imprisoned men, most exonerated through DNA testing, Hervey in June announced the creation of the unit, which she hopes will serve not only to educate but to help suggest legislative reforms to the state's much maligned justice system.

Indeed, members noted at last week's meeting that the group has a lot to do if it hopes to highlight areas in need of reform by the time the Legislature convenes in January. Indeed, Rep. Jim McReynolds, D-Lufkin, a member of the unit who has served on the all-important House Appropriations Com­mit­tee, noted that if any proposed reforms have a fiscal implication, now is the time to find funding. "We can't wait until January," he said. "We've got to accelerate this thing quickly and flesh out" possible reforms.

The Texas Criminal Justice Integrity Unit index is here.

Texas Lawyer Coverage of Integrity Unit Meeting

Mary Alice Robbins writes, "Spot Checks of DNA Labs on the Table at TCJIU Meeting," for Texas Lawyer.

With the state Legislature's next regular session beginning in less than five months, lawmakers on the recently formed Texas Criminal Justice Integrity Unit have urged other TCJIU members to reach consensus on reforms and start the ball rolling on bills.

If reforms in the criminal justice system need state money, the unit must start working on the funding needs now, state Rep. Jim McReynolds, D-Lufkin, and a TCJIU member, told the group during its inaugural meeting Aug. 5.

"We can't wait until January," McReynolds said.

State Sen. Rodney Ellis, a Houston Democrat who chairs the New York City-based Innocence Project's board of directors and is a member of the TCJIU, said the unit should ask Gov. Rick Perry to attach an "emergency tag" to reform legislation it proposes.

"If we need to get bills passed, the governor ought to give them priority," Ellis said.

Citing growing concerns about the state's criminal justice system, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals established the 13-member unit in June. Its first meeting was held in the CCA's courtroom. In addition to state legislators, the TCJIU's membership includes judges, prosecutors, criminal-defense attorneys, a representative of Perry's office and others.

CCA Judge Barbara Hervey, the unit's chairwoman, made it clear that education will be one of the group's goals. "First and foremost, we need to educate everyone in the Texas criminal justice system with an eye toward improvements and to get everyone on the same page," Hervey said.

One of Hervey's goals is to improve the reliability of DNA laboratories. To accomplish that, Hervey wants to create a traveling DNA lab to conduct spot inspections at labs around the state. According to Hervey, the mobile lab could work much like a local health department, which makes unannounced visits to restaurants to inspect their premises.

Robbins notes that the group will next meet September 25.  Earlier coverage, and another view of the meeting, is here, via Grits.

 

Texas Criminal Justice Integrity Unit Meets

In this very busy week Scott Henson provided a great service with his coverage of the group's initial meeting, in this post, at Grits for Breakfast.  Here's beginning; you'll want to follow the link for the entire post:

There was a time not so long ago when the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals didn't think too highly of post-conviction DNA evidence, but not anymore. Yesterday, on the heels of Texas' 34th DNA exoneration since 2001, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals held the first meeting of a new "Criminal Justice Integrity Unit" created to identify and promote reforms aimed at preventing false convictions identified through DNA exonerations. (Conflict alert: I attended the event in my capacity working for the Innocence Project of Texas.)

The actual meeting was held in the same chambers where the CCA hears oral arguments. It was an odd little event - more focused on presentations (two by Barry Scheck from the national Innocence Project) than process - but presumably yesterday was just an introductory affair. The CJIU will meet again on Sept. 25 and between then and now Judge Barbara Hervey, who chaired the group, said she'd be calling members privately to hand out assignments.

Declaring "we know the criminal justice system needs reform," Judge Hervey said that "first and foremost the goal of this unit is to educate," citing so-called Fund 540 grant money the CCA controls that pays for training judges. She suggested several times, however, that the group would make specific legislative suggestions, and intimated that some of her colleagues - four of whom attended - were already further along toward supporting some of the most important proposals than court observers might expect.

The Texas Criminal Justice Integrity Unit index is here.

More on Texas Criminal Justice Integrity Unit

Today's Lufkin Daily News carries the editorial, "A good start."

With a history of dubious justice in Texas, the decision by a state appeals court to create an integrity unit is welcome.

Texas leads the nation in wrongful convictions overturned by DNA evidence.

Dallas County's new district attorney has been leading an effort that has uncovered 17 wrongly convicted defendants there alone.

Across the state, DNA evidence has been used to free people who spent years or decades behind bars due to glaring flaws in the state's justice system.

The editorial appeared earlier this week in the Waco Tribune-Herald, both Cox newspapers.

The National Law Journal has a web report, "Texas judge forms panel to reform state's criminal justice system."

A Texas judge has announced the establishment of a group in order to upgrade and reform the state's criminal justice system.

Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Judge Barbara Hervey said the Texas Criminal Justice Integrity Unit will initially consist of 12 people, including Texas lawyers, judges, law professors and a senator.

"This is a call to action to address the growing concerns with our criminal justice system," Hervey said in a news release. "Although we applaud all previous studies and dialogue, it is now time to act and move for reform.

While more government does not necessarily mean better government, reflection and willingness to improve does respond to the needs of our system and our citizens."

The group will hopefully convene for the first time by the end of June or July and conduct some of its work over the summer in order to be ready for the state legislature's opening in the fall, said Rose Cardona, Hervey's briefing attorney. A report could also be produced by the group, she said.

Earlier coverage is here.

More Editorial Support for Criminal Justice Integrity Unit

Sunday's Dallas Morning News carried the editorial, "Court's integrity proposal."

Lasting reform, though, requires legislative action, and that's why an effort by Sen. Rodney Ellis should continue to muster political support. Mr. Ellis, a Houston Democrat who organized the Capitol conference, wants to create an innocence commission that could help set criminal justice standards by re-examining wrongful convictions.

The appeals court, meanwhile, regains some credibility in stopping an execution last week to examine an appeal of Texas' lethal injection procedure. The court made a mockery of justice in September when Presiding Judge Sharon Keller issued her infamous "we close at 5" edict, refusing to consider a similar appeal from a Houston killer that came in minutes late. The ensuing execution appeared to flaunt the U.S. Supreme Court's move to halt capital punishment nationwide because of the injection question.

With states now cleared to start up again, Texas' highest criminal court has decided that Huntsville's death chamber should not cut short due process before resuming its lethal work. Nothing less should be expected from a court that sets the tone for the nation's leading capital punishment state.

Today's Waco Tribune-Herald has the editorial, "Justice demands integrity unit."

According to the Associated Press, 33 Texas inmates have been exonerated using DNA testing since 2001.

Last year, the state’s highest criminal appeals court made national news when Presiding Judge Sharon Keller refused to keep the court open after its scheduled 5 p.m. closing time even after she was notified that attorneys were preparing an appeal for a death-row inmate, Michael Richard.

Richard was put to death on schedule.

That the court could not be inconvenienced by a few extra minutes or hours when a life was at stake is the sort of outrage that demands reform.

The new integrity unit will seek methods to collect and preserve evidence, improve crime labs and expand the pool of qualified lawyers — among other reforms.

It’s a good start.

Earlier coverage is here.

Editorial Support for Texas Criminal Justice Integrity Unit

The Austin American-Statesman editorial is, "Major leap toward restoring justice."

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals took a huge step this week in restoring integrity and public confidence to the state’s broken justice system.

Texas Criminal Appeals Judge Barbara Hervey announced the creation of an integrity unit to study and correct problems in the justice system that repeatedly produces wrongful convictions.

That action signals a U-turn for a court that has been heavily criticized for rubbing-stamping convictions by Texas prosecutors rather than weighing the merits of the appeals it adjudicates.

We’ve written many times over the years about how the state’s highest criminal court has focused too heavily on process at the expense of justice. There was a long line of embarrassing rulings issued by the court, including a decision that found nothing wrong with a lawyer who slept through his client’s capital murder trial.

Last year, Presiding Judge Sharon Keller thrust the court into the national spotlight for her refusal to keep the court open beyond 5 p.m. (closing time) to give attorneys time to submit an appeal for death-row inmate Michael Richard, who was scheduled to be executed that same evening. Richard was executed.

That is the kind of justice many have come to expect from the state’s highest criminal court, the last stop in the Texas criminal justice system.

Today's Fort Worth Star-Telegram has the editorial, "Time to act."

The wheels of justice usually turn slowly.

But it took only about a month after a public forum on wrongful convictions for the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to announce the formation of an integrity unit to examine weaknesses in the state's criminal justice system.

Judge Barbara Hervey made the announcement Wednesday.

Presiding Judge Sharon Keller should be at the front of this effort, but the fact that she isn't should not detract from its importance.

The unit is a fitting response to a spotlight on the system's mistakes: 33 inmate exonerations though DNA testing statewide since 1994, 17 of them in Dallas County alone since 2001. In the past seven years, the state has paid 45 wrongly convicted individuals about $4.5 million, according to the Texas comptroller.

"This is a call to action to address the growing concerns with our criminal justice system," Hervey said in a written statement.

Earlier news coverage is here.

More Coverage of Texas Criminal Justice Integrity Unit

The Dallas Morning News carries an updated AP dispatch, "Texas high court creates integrity unit."

Key issues to be considered include:

_Improving eyewitness testimony. Experts say unreliable testimony is the No. 1 problem in wrongful convictions.

_Reforming standards for collecting, preserving and storing evidence, which may be needed for future testing during an appeal.

_Eliminating improper interrogations and protect against false confessions.

_Improving crime lab reliability.

_Improving the qualify of lawyers appointed to poor defendants.

One issue not listed was use of the death penalty. Of the 42 executions in the United States last year, Texas accounted for 26. Texas has executed 405 inmates since the death penalty was reinstituted in 1982.

Hervey said the integrity unit is not a suggestion that she and the other judges on the court believe an innocent person may have been executed in the past.

While some appeals from death row cases may involve the same issues, "I don't want to treat death row claims about innocence any different that somebody else's claims," Hervey said.

The integrity unit could meet for the first time next month, Hervey said. Some of the reforms may need an act of the Legislature.

In the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Max Baker writes, "Spate of exonerations in Texas prompts a search for answers."

In reaction to the growing number of exonerations across the state, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals announced Wednesday that it is creating a Texas Criminal Justice Integrity Unit to investigate and address weaknesses in the criminal justice system.

"This is a call to action to address the growing concerns with our criminal justice system," said Court of Criminal Appeals Judge Barbara Hervey. "Although we applaud all previous studies and dialogue, it is now time to act and move for reform."

And:

Judge Barbara Hervey of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals announced the creation of the Texas Criminal Justice Integrity Unit on Wednesday. In addition to Hervey, the unit's members are:

State Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston

Mary Anne Wiley, deputy general counsel for Gov. Rick Perry

Bill Allison, director of the University of Texas Criminal Defense Clinic

Pat Johnson, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety Crime Lab

James McLaughlin, executive director of the Texas Police Chiefs Association

Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins

El Paso County District Attorney Jaime Esparza

State Rep. Jim McReynolds, D-Lufkin

Gary Udashen, Dallas criminal defense attorney

State District Judge Sid Harle of San Antonio

Jim Bethke, director of the Texas Task Force on Indigent Defense

The Houston Chronicle has, "State sets up watchdog unit for criminal justice system."

The court can address some areas, while the Legislature must address others. Hervey said she plans to work through the summer so the group can have solid proposals when the Legislature meets in January.

Yesterday's coverage is here.