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Criminal Law

: Grits for Breakfast

Arson cases may be next venue for innocence claims

By Gritsforbreakfast

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I spent yesterday afternoon with Jeff Blackburn of the Innocence Project of Texas, who was in Austin to visit with legislators and media about James Lee Woodard, an innocent man who spent 27 years in prison for a crime he didn't commit. Woodard walked out of court in Dallas a free man on Tuesday.Blackburn predicted that beyond DNA cases, which are increasingly few and far between (because most cases have no DNA evidence, and most DNA evidence collected wasn't preserved), arson cases could constitute the next wave of exonerations in Texas. More than 800 people are in Texas prisons over arson convictions, he said, and dozens if not hundreds were convicted based on forensic science that's no longer considered valid.Texas' most infamous arson case targeting a possibly innocent man resulted in the execution of Todd Willingham in 2006, and a Chicago Tribune investigative report concluded that he was likely innocent and the fire could have been an accident:Before Willingham died by lethal injection on Feb...continue to full post

Full post as published by Grits for Breakfast on May 01, 2008 (boomark / email).