Reply #10: 15th Dallas County Inmate Since ’01 Is Freed by DNA (NYT) [View All]

[struggle4progress]

By RALPH BLUMENTHAL
Published: January 4, 2008

HOUSTON — After nearly 27 years in prison for a rape he did not commit, Charles Chatman walked free on Thursday, the 15th wrongfully convicted prisoner in Dallas County to be exonerated by DNA testing since 2001.

The innocence claims of seven other Dallas-area prisoners are pending, thanks in large part to a crime laboratory that, unlike others in Texas, has preserved evidence going back as long as three decades ...

Mr. Chatman, who had been locked up since age 20, said he had lost three chances for release by insisting to the Parole Board, “I never committed the crime.” ...

“People look at Dallas County as an anomaly,” <District Attorney Craig Watkins> said. “We’re not. We just have the DNA.” He said his office had reviewed 80 other claims of wrongful conviction and submitted seven cases for tests ...

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/04/us/04dna.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Lesson: Require em to save the evidence