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

Criminal Law

: Grits for Breakfast

Houston jury awards $5 million for false conviction

A federal jury in Houston yesterday awarded George Rodriguez a $5 million verdict based on misconduct at the Houston crime lab that caused his false conviction. Said the Houston Chronicle:George Rodriguez, 48, gained his freedom in 2004 after DNA tests discredited the findings of the troubled Houston Police Department crime lab on his case. By that time, he had served nearly two decades in prison. His father had died. His daughters faced abuse from men their mother lived with.?Ain?t no amount of money is going to even my scale,? Rodriguez said after hearing the verdict. ?I lost my dad and my girls have been through hell. I am grateful, but no money could replace what I lost.?I find it hard to disagree with this interpretation of the jury's message:?This verdict says what I think we all know to be true about the Houston Police Department crime lab,? said Barry Scheck, one of Rodriguez?s lawyers and a co-founder of the Innocence Project, which helped secure his release from prison...continue to full post

Full post as published by Grits for Breakfast on June 26, 2009 (boomark / email).