<p>The only thing Texas can be proven guilty is of holding on to evidence too long for its own good. Unless you know how many cases were researched in other states and abandoned due to lack of evidence you know nothing.</p>
<p>Reload and save your venom for elsewhere Barrons. And don’t dance around euphemisms. If it’s your opinion that Texas shouldn’t bother with saving evidence that may one day reverse an unjust convition, just say so. Ah, but you did already say so. To each his own.</p>
<p>In states where you are not seeing old convictions overturned with DNA evidence, that likely means that they have either not saved their specimens or they aren’t going to the trouble to investigate. Because witness testimony is just as unreliable in other states as it is in Texas, and facts are that most rape convictions made 30 years ago were made as a result of witness testimony. There is nothing special about Texas in this regard.</p>
<p>I am not stating that this is an issue with Texas compared to other states however I find this disturbing:</p>
<p><<2009-OCT-08: TX: Governor dissolves Texas Forensic Science Commission: The Commission had been investigating the case of Todd Willingham who had been charged with arson in the deaths of his children in 1991. He was found guilty and executed. There are allegations that the investigation was botched, and that Willingham was innocent of arson – in fact that no arson had ever happened. At the time, the prosecution suggested that Willingham was a Satanist. They based this conclusion on the heavy-metal rock posters. Some have suggested that the action by the governor was an effort to cover up “… a state-sanctioned murder.” >></p>
<p>Here is an update on the Todd Willingham case. It is worth reading to see the arguments. Gov. Perry did not dissolve the Commission he just sacked the Commissioners and put his people in. Not that it makes much difference to Todd–since he had already been executed!</p>
<p>[National</a> experts criticize state’s study of fatal 1991 house fire | News for Dallas, Texas | Dallas Morning News | Texas Regional News](<a href=“http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/texassouthwest/stories/DN-willingham_08tex.ART.State.Edition1.148369e.html]National”>http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/texassouthwest/stories/DN-willingham_08tex.ART.State.Edition1.148369e.html)</p>
<p>40 of the 252 exonerees (so far) had confessed. There is a link within this post to a 2010 volume of the Stanford Law Review for a very detailed and informative article on the substance of false confessions</p>
<p>[FRONTLINE:</a> editors’ notes: preview: why would anyone confess to a crime they didn’t commit? | PBS](<a href=“http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/story/2010/10/why-would-anyone-confess-to-a.html?utm_campaign=homepage&utm_medium=feeds&utm_source=feeds]FRONTLINE:”>http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/story/2010/10/why-would-anyone-confess-to-a.html?utm_campaign=homepage&utm_medium=feeds&utm_source=feeds)</p>