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CCA upholds 5-year sentence for central cop in Dallas fake drug scandal

By Gritsforbreakfast

Thirty-nine people wrongfully convicted in Dallas County have been freed from Texas prisons since the turn of the century, and while DNA exonerations grab more headlines these days, 24 of them were set up in drug cases by a mendacious informant and allegedly corrupt police officers using fake drugs.In all, eight Dallas police officers allegedly falsified field tests to say that gypsum powder tested positive for drugs. Only two of those officers so far have been held criminally liable - this week the Court of Criminal Appeals upheld Mark Delapaz's five-year prison sentence on the first of three pending charges. (The CCA is still considering two petitions by the state on appeal that a lower court overturned.) Delapaz's partner who ratted him out last year received a two-year, probated sentence...continue to full post

Full post as published by Grits for Breakfast on February 29, 2008 (boomark / email).