softheart
05-27-2003, 03:11 PM
May 26, 2003
HOUSTON -- As the number of criminal cases being re-examined due to
problems with evidence or prosecution grows, so does the certainty that
the Texas criminal justice system has monumental flaws.
Recently attorneys for a death row inmate asked for a new trial because
prosecutors failed to give the defense team ballistics evidence his
lawyers say could have cleared him.
As with so many of these cases, the problem evidence came from the Houston
Police Department crime lab, closed this year after an audit discredited
much of the work it has done over the years.
So far, DNA and ballistics evidence from more than 100 cases must be
retested. Seventeen of these are death penalty cases.
As long as there is reason to believe that one prisoner could be on death
row unjustly, Channel 2 believes that no prisoner should be executed.
Texas needs a moratorium on executions until then.
---------
Source : Channel 2, Houston, editorial
HOUSTON -- As the number of criminal cases being re-examined due to
problems with evidence or prosecution grows, so does the certainty that
the Texas criminal justice system has monumental flaws.
Recently attorneys for a death row inmate asked for a new trial because
prosecutors failed to give the defense team ballistics evidence his
lawyers say could have cleared him.
As with so many of these cases, the problem evidence came from the Houston
Police Department crime lab, closed this year after an audit discredited
much of the work it has done over the years.
So far, DNA and ballistics evidence from more than 100 cases must be
retested. Seventeen of these are death penalty cases.
As long as there is reason to believe that one prisoner could be on death
row unjustly, Channel 2 believes that no prisoner should be executed.
Texas needs a moratorium on executions until then.
---------
Source : Channel 2, Houston, editorial