Another Day, Another DNA Exoneration in Dallas

Yet another Henry Wade era conviction is overturned on DNA evidence. Or as we call it in Dallas, a Tuesday.

Good on Craig Watkins’ latest initiative, too: reviewing all the older death row cases.

Meanwhile, former Dallas prosecutor Toby Shook who got smacked down in 2006 running against Watkins gets the WTF Award for his quote:

Perhaps he hasn’t thought this through, but essentially what he’s saying is, ‘There is one more court of appeal and that’s me. That’s going to be devastating to a [victim's] family.

Yeah, well how about a potentially wrongfully convicted man facing a ride on the Huntsville steel gurney, Toby? How devastating is that? And how is it comforting to a murder victim’s family to wonder whether the right guy got the Kervorkian juice, and wonder whether maybe the actual killer is still out there?

Comments

  1. Tom says:

    Agreed. Saying that you’re “tough on crime” and pumping up your conviction rate with innocent people is devastating to the taxpayers.

  2. amanda says:

    Exactly, the thought that even one innocent person dies is makes all of this necessary.

  3. Rawlins Gilliland says:

    Shook is shaking because the truth about his…and Wade’s…record…aka ‘legacy’… is no longer ‘on the ropes’. More like ‘on the gallows’.

  4. Flow says:

    You made the Reason blog. Redeem this post for a free slot token at an Oklahoma casino. :bergman:

Trackbacks/Pingbacks

  1. [...] a look at all pending death row cases originating in Dallas County.  Dallas-area journalist Trey Garrison notes that Watkins’ announcement triggered this curious reaction from a former prosecutor: Toby [...]

  2. [...] a look at all pending death row cases originating in Dallas County.  Dallas-area journalist Trey Garrison notes that Watkins’ announcement triggered this curious reaction from a former prosecutor: Toby [...]

  3. [...] into all pending death row cases in Dallas County and that this announcement prompted a rather peculiar response from a former prosecutor. Toby Shook, who sent several people to death row while he was a Dallas [...]