Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Criminal Law Blogs -> Grits for Breakfast

Criminal Law

: Grits for Breakfast

Delay in Waller's DNA testing kept innocent man in prison, let guilty one go free

It turns out that the actual rapist for whose 1992 crime Patrick Waller was wrongly convicted went free earlier this year because former Dallas District Attorney Bill Hill delayed DNA testing for too long. According to the Dallas News, Waller's defense attorney said prosecutors under Mr. Hill opposed both [of Waller's] requests for testing. One prosecutor testified at a hearing that she would prosecute him again even if the DNA testing cleared him. Two trial judges and two state appeals courts agreed that testing should be denied.Craig Watkins, who succeeded Mr. Hill as district attorney in January 2007, granted the DNA test to Mr. Waller. The results came back six months ago, but the tests did not fully exonerate him then because the victim was sexually assaulted by two men...continue to full post

Full post as published by Grits for Breakfast on June 27, 2008 (boomark / email).