Jail for Actual Criminals

The title shouldn't be about a real problem. In Dallas, however, the men in jail under the last prosecutor were all to often innocent, while the guilty went free. The County Attorney who has been active in freeing the innocent thinks it's time to turn that around.

Troubled that innocent people have been imprisoned by faulty prosecutions, District Attorney Craig Watkins said Monday that he would re-examine nearly 40 death penalty convictions and would seek to halt executions, if necessary, to give the reviews time to proceed.

Mr. Watkins told The Dallas Morning News that problems exposed by 19 DNA-based exonerations in Dallas County have convinced him he should ensure that no death row inmate is actually innocent.
DMN File
DMN File
Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins

"It's not saying I'm putting a moratorium on the death penalty," said Mr. Watkins, whose reviews would be of all of the cases now on death row handled by his predecessors. "It's saying that maybe we should withdraw those dates and look at those cases from a new perspective to make sure that those individuals that are on death row need to be there and they need to be executed."

He cited the exonerations and stories by The News about problems with those prosecutions as the basis for his decision. The exonerations have routinely revealed faulty eyewitness testimony and, in a few cases, prosecutorial misconduct.
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Mr. Waller was cleared of a 1992 robbery-rape. The statute of limitations to prosecute the true perpetrators has expired even though they have admitted to the crimes. Had previous District Attorney Bill Hill not denied testing, the results could have prevented one of the men from being paroled.

"That's really what got me to thinking," Mr. Watkins said. "This is larger than just having innocent folks in jail. This is about having criminals out on the street with cover to go and commit their offenses."

Justice has taken some severe blows under the occupied White House, but in Dallas it has regained a place in the system. Jail had been used under the last, 'tough', prosecutor to end cases, not to administer justice. The bad associations have been plowed under by opening records to honest and determined Innocence Project researchers.

With DNA evidence now having overturned 20 convictions, the need to stop executions which may be now facing those who are innocent of the crimes they have been sentenced for is obvious. Justice is being served and the guilty no longer left free to commit more crimes, under Watkins' office. This is all for the good.