Texas DA Blasts Prosecution & Defense for Wrongful Rape Conviction
In a rare public rebuke, District Attorney Pat Lykos of Harris County, Texas, has blasted both prosecution and defense lawyers in a wrongful conviction case. She also blames police and a dysfunctional police crime lab, for “a cascading, systemwide breakdown” that caused an innocent man to be convicted and sentenced to 40 years in a 2002 child-rape case.
Despite repeated claims of innocence by the now-cleared defendant, Ricardo Rachell, DNA testing was not conducted until 2007, reports the Houston Chronicle. The testing—which took seven months to complete—exonerated Rachell and pointed to another man, who is a convicted sex offender and is currently serving time, as the likely suspect.
That other man, Andrew Wayne Hawthorne, is now charged in the case that put Rachell behind bars.
The biggest problem was the fact that the DNA lab was closed for several years, discouraging those involved in the case from seeking testing, Lykos writes in an unusual report. But her own office, at the time, had no policy requiring pretrial DNA testing—and that policy will now be instituted, she writes. She also says defense lawyers should have pushed for forensic evidence to be tested.
Even when Rachell himself wrote to police after his conviction, and pointed them to Hawthorne, who had, the Chronicle reports, continued to assault young boys after Rachell’s arrest, his request for further investigation initially was dismissed.
The article doesn’t say how Rachell eventually persuaded authorities to reopen his case.
Earlier coverage:
ABAJournal.com: “Innocent Inmate Will Be Freed in Harris County, Texas”
