18th Innocent Man Freed in 1 Texas County; Officials Vow Change
For the 18th time in approximately seven years, an innocent man cleared by DNA testing reportedly has been released from prison by one Texas county.
This time it was 55-year-old James Woodard who walked out of a Dallas courtroom yesterday, a free man. He had served 27 years in prison for the murder of his girlfriend—the longest time ever spent in prison by anyone subsequently exonerated by DNA testing, Reuters reported. Like many other wrongfully convicted individuals, he is a black man, the news agency writes, and his case “highlight[s] problems in the local justice system that include what critics have said is a history of racism and racial profiling.”
Woodard could have been released earlier, if he admitted his “guilt” in the rape-murder to the state parole board. But he refused to do so, reports the Associated Press.
“It says a lot about your character that you were more interested in the truth than your freedom,” state District Judge Mark Stoltz told Woodard as he ordered his release. To formally be declared innocent, Woodard must now obtain an appellate court order or a pardon from the Texas governor, according to AP.
The deluge of wrongful convictions in Dallas County—reportedly there have been 18 inmates since 2001 who were cleared by DNA testing, the most in any one county in the country—has caught the attention of state lawmakers, according to Reuters and the Innocence Project. (Counts on the number of innocent prisoners freed in Dallas County have varied in different media reports; however, 18 now appears to be the current, correct number although some news reports say it is 17.)
In a press release, the project says Rodney Ellis, a Texas state senator, has promised reform and organized a landmark Summit on Wrongful Convictions at the state capitol in Austin on May 8 to address the issue.
“We’ve reached a tipping point on wrongful convictions in Texas. Nobody can seriously doubt that there’s a problem, and next week leaders from across our criminal justice system will come together to start solving it,” Ellis tells the Innocence Project. “We will bring a wide range of leaders, experts and exonerees together for a full day to develop concrete, common-sense remedies to make our system of justice more fair and accurate. We won’t solve these serious problems in one day, but we will make historic strides toward restoring confidence in our criminal justice system.”
Meanwhile, the Dallas County district attorney says he intends to lobby for change, including the statewide establishment of “conviction integrity units,” reports the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram.
Investigators were initially steered in the wrong direction by the victim’s stepfather. He told police that Woodard came to their home the night she was murdered and asked for the 21-year-old woman, but the stepfather says he now believes he was mistaken, reports the Dallas Morning News.
The error was compounded, the newspaper says, when prosecutors illegally withheld from the defense at trial exonerating evidence about three other men who were with the victim the night she was murdered. Two of the three were later convicted of sexual assault.
Related coverage:
ABAJournal.com: “Texas Man Innocent in Rape Case; 16th Wrongful Conviction in Dallas County”
ABAJournal.com: “Free at Last After 25 Years, Former Inmate Marvels at Life”
ABAJournal.com: “Columnist Asks, How Can I Trust the Justice System?”
