I put away an innocent man (Dallas Co. Assistant D.A.)

[sonias]

Dallas Morning News 5/14/09
James A. Fry: I put away an innocent man

When I prosecuted Charles Chatman for aggravated rape in 1981, I was certain I had the right man. His case was one of my first important felony cases as a Dallas County assistant district attorney. Chatman was convicted in a court of law by a jury of his peers. They, like me, were convinced of his guilt.

Nearly 27 years later, DNA proved me – and the criminal justice system – wrong. Chatman was freed from prison in January after DNA testing proved him innocent. He spent nearly three decades behind bars for a crime he did not commit – a stark reminder that our justice system is not immune from error. No reasonable person can question this simple truth.

(snip)
Chatman's story is tragically not unique. The staggering number of exonerations attest to just how easily the innocent can be convicted. Nationally, 225 people have been released from prison after DNA testing proved their innocence. Seventeen of them had been sentenced to death. Twenty DNA exonerations were from Dallas County alone, the most of any U.S. jurisdiction. The vast majority of those exonerated in Dallas County would still be in prison but for the fact Dallas preserved its DNA evidence.

As with so many of these cases, Chatman was convicted on the testimony of one eyewitness. Witness misidentification is one of the greatest causes of wrongful convictions nationwide, playing a role in more than 75 percent of cases with DNA exonerations.

Interesting read but also disappointing in that he claims Dallas long time D.A. Henry Wade was a good man. James Fry is a Republican so of course he thinks Henry Wade was a good D.A. Henry Wade was a blood thirsty racist in my opinion.

Tips to GritsforBreakfast:

GritsforBreakfast blog - May 15, 2009
Chatman prosecutor: 'Let's get this system fixed'
James Fry, a former Dallas ADA and protoge' of District Attorney Henry Wade who prosecuted recent DNA-exoneree Charles Chatman's case nearly 30 years ago, reflects on his role in the false conviction and the implications of recent DNA exonerations for the justice system in an excellent Dallas Morning News op ed titled, "I put away an innocent man," which concludes:

Chatman's case was not a capital crime, but the problems that led to his wrongful conviction raise the question: How can we continue carrying out executions in Texas when we know the system is so prone to error?

For years, Texas has led the nation in the number of executions. Why don't we now strive to lead the nation in a new direction: reforming a justice system in urgent need of reform?

James Fry's conscious is bothering him. I commend him for getting behind an effort to reform our horrible criminal justice system and I hope he really means it and starts serious efforts to get reform going. He can start with talking to the tough on crime members at the Lege who sometimes believe that adage -"Shoot/Kill them all, and let God sort them out". Our system is set up to convict more innocent people lest we miss one guilty one, rather than the other way around.

Sonia

[Aragorn]

1. He actually admits it

and has seen the light. About half my posts are on this issue I think. Things like this seem to change 1 person at a time. What we need therefore is more people per day.

For-profit prisons, racism, etc are big big problems and hardly just in Texas. But Texas does in fact kill a lot of people, and we know some are innocent. Some are retarded and/or brain-damaged.

If police et al abuse their power, nothing happens to them. So some of these are simply vendettas by a particular person in power.

And sometimes we get a whole town accused of selling cocaine, then it turns out to be chalk.

[sonias]

3. Dallas and Tulia, Texas

In Dallas it certainly is costing them money:

LA Times 2/19/2005
Dallas to Pay Millions in Drug Arrest Lawsuits

Dallas will pay about $5.7 million to settle lawsuits brought by 16 people who were jailed after paid police informants planted fake drugs on them, two attorneys said.

Plaintiffs' attorney Don Tittle said 12 clients reached settlements totaling about $4.5 million. Another attorney, Tony Wright, said his four clients settled for about $1.2 million. The settlements ranged from $120,000 for a client who spent one day in jail to $480,000 for a client jailed for months, he said.

This site has an interesting follow up on Tulia since the incident and the film:
PBS Independent Lens

That asshole Tom Coleman is on parole until 2015. He can't work in law enforcement but frankly he got off easy. :grr:

Sonia

[Baby Snooks]

2. In your opinion?

"Henry Wade was a blood thirsty racist in my opinion."

I think it's pretty much established fact that he was. Along with quite a few others in this state. Some of whom are still at their desks. Elected to the office on the platform of "law and order" which of course means simply "keeping the minorities in their place." By hook or by crook. They all say they truly believed the person was guilty. Twenty and thirty years later. May they rot in hell for twenty or thirty million years. Texas is not a "law and order" state but a "law and disorder" state. And our state is set up to where that's just fine and dandy. Who the people elect, let no one but the people remove. That is the attitude at the Attorney General's Office. And always has been the attitude. Whether the Attorney General is a Republican or a Democrat.

And the Justice Department through the years has only rarely intruded. And then very carefully. As it did in Dallas.

As for reforms, as long as we have racists in the Texas Legislature there will be none. And there are racists on both sides of the aisle.

[sonias]

4. I have hope that things will change

One small move in that direction is the Timothy Cole Act which passed both Houses.

AAS Editorial 4/28/09
Compensation for unjust convictions in Texas
Timothy Cole Act would honor signature victim of wrongful conviction who died in prison.
Tuesday, April 28, 2009

It's rightly being named the Timothy Cole Act. And if it's passed by the Legislature, which it should be, it will be the influence of Cole — who died a decade ago while in prison — that gave it the momentum to become law.

Under the measure, compensation for people who were wrongfully imprisoned would increase to a lump sum payment of $80,000 per year of incarceration, up from the current $50,000. It would direct payments to the next of kin in cases in which those who were wrongfully jailed die before they were exonerated.

This is a good bill that the House passed last week. Now it's up to the Texas Senate to follow suit, and the chances look good, according to Senate sponsors, Robert Duncan, R-Lubbock, and Rodney Ellis, D-Houston. The bill could come up for a vote this week.

The legislation is likely to require a constitutional amendment to pardon the deceased Cole, who spent about 14 years in prison for a crime he did not commit. The Cole case drew national attention earlier this year, being called Texas' first posthumous DNA exoneration.

Dallas Morning News 5/11/09
Timothy Cole Act passes in state Senate
Tod Robberson/Editorial Writer

It's wonderful when lawmakers do the right thing, and the Timothy Cole Act was the rightest of right things to do. There are few greater injustices in the world than sending people to prison for crimes they did not commit. Timothy Cole, a former Texas Tech student, was among them, and he died in prison an innocent man, exonerated by DNA evidence that proved he could not have committed the rape he was convicted of.

Other exonerees have been released from prison with little more than a handshake and a hearty goodbye. One of them, whose life was ruined by the experience, now is walking the streets of southern Dallas as a homeless person. This is shameful.

House Bill 1736 Increases Compensation, Other Benefits for Wrongly Imprisoned Texans
Passed the House on a 136-1 vote
Nays—Swinford. Unapologetic racist in the House.

Passed the Senate on 27-4 vote.
These four would be your unapologetic racists in the Senate:
Nays: Harris, Huffman, Nelson, Patrick.


Sonia

[tammywammy]

5. Have you seen that show on

Investigation Discovery (ID) called Dallas DA, it's all about the DNA cases and freeing people.

DA Craig Watkins is at least trying to do the right thing and get these people out of jail if they don't belong there.

[sonias]

6. Craig Watkins is a breath of fresh air for Dallas County

And one of the first things he set out to do was review all the cases of convictions. He's one of the good guys. He's the complete opposite of Henry Wade. A positive thing to point out in the criminal justice system in Texas. And the other cheap, corrupt "convict at all costs" former D.A. from Harris Chuck Rosenthal is now gone too. That is progress!

NPR Morning Edition, February 23, 2007
Dallas DA to Review Decades of Convictions
by Wade Goodwyn

Dallas' new district attorney, Craig Watkins, says he will open his files to the Innocence Project and work with the group to examine hundreds of cases over the past 30 years. The goal is to see whether DNA tests might reveal wrongful convictions.

The move reflects the magnitude of the change that has occurred in the Dallas DA's office over the last six weeks. Watkins was elected the first black district attorney in Texas.

"It's a whole different world in the Dallas criminal justice system," says defense attorney Gary Udashen. "It is a world where if a client of ours is innocent, we feel like there's openness in the District Attorney's office to hear what we have say, to look at what we have to show them, where we don't anticipate resistance every step of the way."

Udashen's firm alone has had seven Dallas clients who were convicted, sent to prison, exhausted their appeals and then ultimately — with the pro bono help of Udashen and his colleagues — were found to be innocent.

ReasonOnline 4/7/08
Is This America's Best Prosecutor?
Meet Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins.

Radley Balko | April 7, 2008
In 2006, Craig Watkins became the first African-American elected district attorney of any county in Texas history. More interestingly, the 40-year-old Watkins was elected in Dallas County, where the DA’s office has long been known for its aggressive prosecution tactics. A former defense attorney, Watkins says the Dallas DA’s office has for too long adopted a damaging "convict at all costs" philosophy, an argument bolstered by a string of wrongful convictions uncovered by the Texas Innocence Project in the months before he was elected. Watkins ran on a reform platform, and pulled out a surprising victory against a more experienced Republican opponent.

After taking office, Watkins dismissed nine top-level prosecutors in the office. Nine others left voluntarily. He established a "Conviction Integrity Unit" to ensure proper prosecutorial procedures, and began working with the Texas Innocence Project to find other cases of possible wrongful conviction. reason Senior Editor Radley Balko recently interviewed Watkins by phone.

:kick:

Sonia

[tammywammy]

7. The only interaction I have with the DA's office

Is when I send in checks that have bounced, account closed, etc at work. But I have to say, whenever I talk to someone in their office, they are all super nice and helpful.

I really give the Dallas County DA's office a :thumbsup:

[MagickMuffin]

8. Lucky for the innocent prisoners that "the system" still keeps records

Just think if they destroyed everything after they get their "convictions" and innocent people would be locked up forever.

Glad to see someone trying to do the right thing and release people who don't belong behind bars. The only thing is that whoever committed the crimes are still walking around free while someone else serves out their sentence :scared:

[Honeycombe8]

9. Chatman is no poster boy for "innocent man jailed" but freed by DNA.

The case was on a TV program called "Dallas DNA" tonight, and coincidentally, I saw it.

Fact - the DNA proved that Chatman is not the man who raped the woman (vaginally and probably anally) before she was shot in the head.

Fact - evidence showed at the time that he was mad at the woman's husband for having sold him, Chatman, some bad drugs. He made the statement that he was going to go to the guy's house and (do very bad things - it couldn't be repeated on TV) and kill the dude's wife.

Fact - the drug seller dude's wife was, in fact, found bound, gagged, raped, and murdered shortly thereafter.

Fact - there may have been two guys there. Chatman and another man were arrested for the crime. The other guy turned state's evidence (he got off with 30 days for theft for that), and testified that it was Chatman who did the bad things. All guy #2 did was tie the woman up, and only because Chatman forced him to at gunpoint. It was guy #2's DNA that proved he was the one that in fact had raped the woman.

Fact - Chatman is going to be re-tried for murder.

Fact - After being released on bond to await his retrial, Chatman was a bad boy. He started up a FaceBook page and posted pics of him and his niece (grown, but a niece nonetheless). He is naked at least waist up, and he and niece are sloppy tongue kissing in a sexy embrace. There were other pics. Judge throws Chatman back in jail to await his re-trial.

It sounds to me like the dirty deed was probably done by both men...only it was guy #2 who did the raping (or at least the ejaculating). The bullet casings found at the scene? They matched Chatman's gun.

Chatman - no poster boy. I suspect he'll be spending the rest of his life in prison for murder one of an innocent woman who was tied in such a way like prisoners - hobbled. Prosecutor suspects that was because she was walked around the house and put through God knows what before she was repeatedly raped and then shot in the head, while crying (according to guy #2).

[Baby Snooks]

10. The problem here...

"Chatman and another man were arrested for the crime. The other guy turned state's evidence (he got off with 30 days for theft for that), and testified that it was Chatman who did the bad things."
___________________________________________________________________

And yet DNA proved otherwise. One of the problems here has to do with the Law of Parties. This man was given 30 days for theft while another man in another case was sentenced to death for participation in a capital murder?

District attorneys in Texas care little about justice. Only the perception of justice. And this case is yet another example of it.

[Honeycombe8]

11. "District attorneys in Texas care little about justice."

To be fair, your statement is a broad generalization that isn't true across the board.

It's more fair to say that some DAs in TX care little about justice. But they're people doing a job, and just like other people doing a job, some are good, some are not.

But I'd agree that the DA (and the jury - after all, it was the JURY who convicted him) was blind to the fact that guy #2 HAD to be involved. As soon as I heard the evidence that there was a guy #2 who was present, who was a friend of Chatman's, and was saying that he was "forced" to tie the woman up....as soon as I heard that, I thought that didn't sound like the truth. It went against common sense. I immediately thought, "This was probably done by BOTH of those men." I still think that.

You're right, though, about the DNA. I was just making the point, though, that the DA shouldn't feel too bad about Chatman, since he might very well have committed the murder.