Dallas Man Freed By DNA Testing After 27 Years In Prison

[Purveyor]

Source: Associated Press

(04-29) 09:43 PDT DALLAS (AP) --

A Dallas man who spent more than 27 years in prison for a murder he didn't commit was freed Tuesday, after being incarcerated longer than any other wrongfully convicted U.S. inmate cleared by DNA testing

James Lee Woodard stepped out of the courtroom and raised his arms to a throng of photographers. Supporters and other people gathered outside the court erupted in applause.

"No words can express what a tragic story yours is," state District Judge Mark Stoltz told Woodard at a brief hearing before his release.

Woodard, cleared of the 1980 murder of his girlfriend, became the 18th person in Dallas County to have his conviction cast aside. That's a figure unmatched by any county nationally, according to the Innocence Project, a New York-based legal center that specializes in overturning wrongful convictions.

"I thank God for the existence of the Innocence project," Woodard, 55, told the court. "Without that, I wouldn't be here today. I would be wasting away in prison."



Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/04/29/national/a091406D98.DTL

[raccoon]

1. Thanks for posting. Reminds me of THE INNOCENT MAN by John Grisham. nt

[zanne]

2. What is it with the Texas judicial system?

Why so eager to prosecute, condemn and execute? I know that Texas isn't the only state with this kind of reputation, but hell...they do seem to be extra eager about putting people away.

[FiveGoodMen]

4. They're goddamned proud of it!

If there were no crime in TX, they'd be picking their inmates by lottery.

That's what happens when you get overrun by Southern Baptists.

[saigon68]

12. overrun by Southern Baptists

Seen a few of them, they were the ones who bought illegal moonshine

[pattmarty]

6. Texas is the "new" Alabama.

[nebula]

13. Prisons have become a huge, highly profitable industry

www.theatlantic.com/doc/199812/prisons/3

[nebula]

14. US has world's highest rate of incaceration

NY Times: Inmate Count in U.S. Dwarfs Other Nations’

www.nytimes.com/2008/04/23/us/23prison.html?_r=1&ref=us&pagewanted=all&oref=slogin

[pleah]

3. This is why, I believe, the death penalty should be outlawed.

[lonestarnot]

5. K and fucking R

[Pawel K]

7. Let me guess, a black guy?

Yeah, I figured.

[raystorm7]

8. I don't know which is worse...

27 years in prison for a murder you didn't commit or 24 years raped in a basement bearing 7 children from your rapist father :puke:

Both of these victims have a strength I couldn't even begin to imagine.

[Greyskye]

9. Let me guess - he's a black man.

The Texas judicial system is so freaking predictable. :puke:

:kick: & R

[crimsonblue]

10. 18 wrongful convictions? Sounds like they have a class action case...

Not to mention criminal charges. DNA testing is relatively inexpensive these days (especially since most states have their own DNA and crime labs), and I would think that we would want to test EVERYONE convicted of a crime (where DNA played or could play a relevent role) to make sure that we keep the innocent out of jail. We have ruined this man's life, destroyed his soul, and caged him like a filthy animal. Justice left Texas a long long time ago.

[crimsonblue]

11. This part really got me...

"Like nearly all the exonorees, Woodard has maintained his innocence throughout his time in prison. But after filing six writs with an appeals court, plus two requests for DNA testing, his pleas of innocence became so repetitive and routine that "the courthouse doors were eventually closed to him and he was labeled a writ abuser," Roetzel said."

Simply pathetic. If you try and defend your innocence, you get locked up and ignored. Why in the hell are exoneration cases not given fast track status? I cannot understand why judges and governors take their sweet ass time. God damn Texas.

[ohio2007]

15. There are people who oppose using DNA in trials as it infringes on their basic civil rights......

they must have some guilty consciences for wanting to dismiss such evidence in court

[UndertheOcean]

16. tragic

[kath]

17. TWEN. TY. SE. VEN. YEARS.

Jeebus H Christ on a trailer hitch.

"justice" for blacks in Texas is a total freakin' joke. :mad: :mad: :mad:

[Pithlet]

21. I know. I was 8 years old when that man went to prison.

I can't fathom that. All that time, sitting in jail, innocent. And I'm sure he's not the only one. I' be willing to bet there are innocent people rotting right now, who've been there longer, because there are people who simply don't want to do their jobs and write people off as writ abusers instead, among other abuses. It's a travesty.

[question everything]

18. Kick. Hard to believe that so many still support the death penalty (nt)

[Doctor_J]

19. He does have one bit of luck - he was convicted while the DP was verboten

If he'd been convicted a few years later, he'd have been put to death.

Given a choice between living in TX or Antartica, I'd get a parka and learn how to cross-country ski.

[LanternWaste]

20. The Dallas DA's office is spending a lot of time

He was the 17th man exonerated in Dallas since DNA re-testing began.

The Dallas DA's office is spending a lot of time and manpower reviewing older cases. The office has even had to justify it to some of the knuckle-draggers who ask why the DA's office is putting so much effort into getting people out of jail rather than into jail... :eyes:

[Doctor_J]

22. Gee, do you think any of the death warrants signed by Smirk were

issued on innocent people? what are the odds? But he is so proud of all of the people he's killed.

[kath]

23. Dallas County court system was the one involved in the book

Blue Line".
Randall Dale Adams was wrongly convicted of murdering a cop - he spent more than 12 years in prison, 4 of them on Death Row. He once came within 72 HOURS of being executed. Jeebus - imagine the horror of THAT. He was released in 1989.

Very good book - years back, on a drive from St Louis to Cleveland, hubby and I were listening to part of the book being read on the radio. We became so engrossed in the story that we ending up circling all the way around Columbus, because we missed the turn-off to head north to Cleveland and didn't even realize it!

Haven't seen the film, but it won multiple awards.

Adams is white, but I'd bet that the OVERWHELMING majority of those wrongly convicted are black or Hispanic. And I wonder how many of the convictions for cop killers are wrongful ones -- the cops and courts are absolutely dead-set on getting convictions in these cases, no matter what kind of bullshit it takes.

You just KNOW that innocent people have been executed, especially in friggin' Texas. I agree with another poster -- how anyone can continue to support the death penalty is absolutely, totally beyond me.