Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Criminal Law Blogs -> StandDown Texas Project

Criminal Law

: StandDown Texas Project

Reforms Needed to End Injustices

By Steve Hall

That's the title of an editorial in today's San Antonio Express-News.  A strand of hair was the single piece of evidence linking Claude Jones with a 1989 murder that took place in Point Blank, north of Houston. By the forensic standards of the day, the hair was a match ? enough to put Jones on death row. And it was the key evidence cited in a 3-to-2 decision of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to keep him there. The strand of hair had, however, never been tested for a DNA match with Jones ? until last month, when a lab in Pennsylvania found conclusive evidence that the DNA in the hair matched the murder victim, not Jones. That would be good news for Jones, if he were still alive. The state of Texas executed him on Dec...continue to full post

Full post as published by StandDown Texas Project on December 03, 2010 (boomark / email).