Jul 30 2008
19 Dallas Convictions Overturned Since Death of Henry Wade
Since the death of legendary Dallas District Attorney Henry Wade in 2001, 19 men have had their convictions called into question in Dallas County as a result of DNA testing. Yesterday, the Associated Press released an article discussing the legacy of Henry Wade. A portion of that article is pasted below. To view the entire piece, click here.
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As district attorney of Dallas for an unprecedented 36 years, Henry Wade was the embodiment of Texas justice.
A strapping 6-footer with a square jaw and a half-chewed cigar clamped between his teeth, The Chief, as he was known, prosecuted Jack Ruby. He was the Wade in Roe v. Wade. And he compiled a conviction rate so impressive that defense attorneys ruefully called themselves the 7 Percent Club.
But now, seven years after Wade’s death, The Chief’s legacy is taking a beating.
Nineteen convictions — three for murder and the rest involving rape or burglary — won by Wade and two successors who trained under him have been overturned after DNA evidence exonerated the defendants. About 250 more cases are under review.
No other county in America — and almost no state, for that matter — has freed more innocent people from prison in recent years than Dallas County, where Wade was DA from 1951 through 1986.
Current District Attorney Craig Watkins, who in 2006 became the first black elected chief prosecutor in any Texas county, said that more wrongly convicted people will go free.
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