Conviction Integrity Units Expand Beyond Texas Roots

[Draggingtree]

Texas Tribune:

Conviction Integrity Units Expand Beyond Texas Roots

by Noah Fromson, Medill News Service March 12, 2016 1Comment

 

In 2007, the new district attorney of Dallas County partnered with the Innocence Project of Texas to review over 400 old cases, many involving denied requests for DNA testing, because the county had the highest number of wrongful convictions in the country.

 

To ensure such mistaken convictions never happened again, District Attorney Craig Watkins established the first conviction integrity unit in the United States later that year.

 

“We made history ... I still get calls to my private office for individuals that want me to do that," Watkins said this week of reviewing old cases, "but I don't have the power to do that anymore."

 

Watkins’ bid for reelection in 2014 was stifled by Susan Hawk amidst allegations of misused forfeiture funds, but his conviction integrity unit became a model for criminal justice in the country.

 

Today there are 24 county conviction integrity units within district attorneys’ offices nationwide — including those in Bexar, Dallas, Harris, Tarrant and Travis counties in Texas — that work to identify and correct false conviction