Wrongful Conviction Lawsuit Defense Blog : Wrongful Conviction Defense Lawyer & Attorney : Andrew M. Hale Law Firm

Discovery Channel to air new six-part series DALLAS DNA, which premieres Tuesday, April 28 at 10 PM ET.  According to their website:

Dallas DNA chronicles a pioneering unit within the Dallas County District Attorney's office where post-conviction DNA testing is being used to clear the innocent, as well as confirm the guilty. When Craig Watkins ran for district attorney in Dallas County, he promised to fight for justice and through an innovative and unconventional new division he founded; he's been true to his word. In July 2007, Watkins created the nation's first Conviction Integrity Unit (CIU) run by a DA's office and tasked it with re-examining hundreds of petitions submitted by inmates seeking post-conviction DNA testing and reinvestigating the cases that could be possible examples of injustice. Dallas County has more exonerations than any other jurisdiction in the nation since state law began allowing post-conviction testing in 2001. In that time, more than 40 cases have received post-conviction DNA evidence analysis and the results have stunned the nation—to date, 19 cases were found to have wrongful convictions, and under DA Watkins' leadership ten innocent men have walked free.

 Here is the full schedule.

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CBS in Dallas is reporting:  

North Texans and people around the world have become accustomed to seeing inmates, wrongly convicted of a crime in Dallas County, released because of DNA evidence. Now the table has been turned on one man who claimed to be innocent of his crimes. Charles Williams is a rapist and a liar. His DNA proves it. For the past two years, Dallas County men, with decades of prison time served, have been cleared of crimes they didn't commit. The science of DNA proved it. Williams told The Innocence Project he too was wrongly convicted of raping a woman in 1988. "In talking to Charles, I mean he even today will tell you that he did not commit this crime," said public defender Michelle Moore. "But you have to be careful what you ask for here." Williams had the Dallas District Attorney's Office investigate his innocence claim. In the beginning, his case looked like so many of the others. Williams was convicted based on eyewitness testimony and even pled guilty to two other sexual assaults, but maintained his innocence.

Here is the kicker:

District Attorney Craig Watkins wants Williams to spend more time in prison. The convicted rapists' DNA points to Williams as the attacker and only him. "When we believe there's a valid claim of innocence, we have a responsibility to investigate that," explained Watkins. "We did in this case, and unfortunately in this case, the defendant was less than truthful and he will stay in jail as long as we have a say so over it." Williams' victim said the man should have time added to his sentence for wasting taxpayers' money... and that's the plan.

 Watch the DA's comments here

This is not a surprise .  We have seen cases where even when DNA does not match - the person was still involved in the crime.   In one case we saw that just because the man did not rape a little girl (i.e. semen inside the girl was a negative match), did not mean he was not involved in the initial kidnap of the girl.   

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