Texas man set free after 26 years of inprisonment:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080103/ap_on_...dna_exoneration

I'm so proud of my state...we don't care if we get the right person, as long as somebody goes to prison...

Keep that needle full...we've got to kill as many of these "bad" people as possible...don't bother yourself with their possible innocence. That's not important...at least we get it right more times than wrong? Umm, don't we?

TX should follow IL ie.

If only, SCTrojan...Texans tend to be a shoot 1st, ask questions later type of people.

Dallas elected a new D.A., Craig Watkins (Democrat), last year.

He's been instrumental in changing the M.O. of the D.A.'s office:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7565610

Glad to hear about Watkins. Texas accounted for 60% of the people killed via the death penalty last year. If even 1 of those people could have been exonerated by DNA, the whole damned thing should be shut down. I'm very glad New Jersey has taken the step of abolishing the death penalty. No state should permit it, it's far too arbitrary and barbaric, and as a nation we should aim to rehabilitate people rather than exacting state murder for capital crimes. We lock up far too many people, on problematic grounds no less, as it is.

Ironically, The Colbert Report did an extended bit about DNA several months ago, including a fake "educational film" created to look like it was from the 50s and also an interview with a man who was freed from prison thanks to DNA testing.

Thank goodness TX has an active branch of The Innocence Project. I was at University of Texas (in Austin) several years ago and a law professor there talked about work she was doing on wrongful convictions - not necesarily the same thing addressed in this news story, but gives me hope that schools and law students in TX, and hopefully nationwide, are taking up these very issues.

That might be the case, but that type of mentality is not above the law & the judges in the state should start tackling it head on.

Problem is, SCT, the judges have the SAME type of mentality.

Oy! Then it would need to become a Supreme Court issue.