The Times article interviews several individuals including Randy Morse, a county attorney in Fort Bend, who is defending Deputy Pikett. Regarding the reliability of dog scent lineups, he cites a capital murder case in which Deputy Pikett was used to get a conviction and states “We believe in this stuff.”

Also, see the follow up entry in the NY Times blog section.

The law is named after Timothy Cole, a man who died in prison serving time for a sexual assault that DNA now proves he did not commit.  As a result of an investigation of Cole’s case by the Innocence Project of Texas, Cole’s family and the primary rape victim, Michele Mallin, were represented by Jeff Blackburn, Chief Counsel for the Innocence Project of Texas at a hearing that ultimately led to Cole’s exoneration.  According to Blackburn, the passage of the Tim Cole Act “shows the power of truth in a courtroom to bring about justice through the system.  It also shows that the Texas legislature and the Governor are ready to do the right thing for the most deserving of this state.”

Also deserving credit for the passage of the Tim Cole Act is Lubbock attorney Kevin Glasheen, who is representing several Texas exonerees on their compensation claims.  Glasheen worked diligently with Texas legislators including Representative Rafael Anchia, Senator Rodney Ellis, Senator Robert Duncan, and Representative Pete Gallego to push the bill through the legislative process.

The Innocence Project of Texas would finally like to thank Governor Perry for his decision to sign this monumental Act into law.   Later today, Cory Session, Timothy Cole’s brother and family spokesperson, and Ruby Session, Cole’s mother, will be visiting the Governor’s Office and meeting with the legislators to thank them for their work on behalf of Texas’s wrongfully convicted.

The Dallas Morning News Crime Blog reports:

Like 18 of his fellow exonerees, Evans was convicted based on eyewitness testimony. The Dallas Morning News published a series last year that showed all but one of the DNA exonerations used faulty eyewitness testimony to convict.

Evans was wrongly convicted of raping an 18-year-old Southern Methodist University student when she and a friend were headed out to go dancing in Deep Ellum.

He was convicted in 1987.

Evans matched the description of the rapist, including having a speech impediment, court records show.

If Evans is released tomorrow, he will become the 20th person cleared by DNA testing in Dallas County.

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.

I am proud of having been a prosecutor; it is honorable work. In fact, I still have a portrait of former Dallas County District Attorney Henry Wade in my law office. He was a good man, and he gave me a chance to be a trial lawyer. However, my unknowing involvement in prosecuting an innocent man has been a troubling experience.

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.

The fault in Chatman’s case, however, lies not with the victim, who honestly believed she had identified the right man. Instead, it lies in part with the flawed witness identification procedures used by law enforcement agencies. Research has shown that relatively small changes can greatly improve witness accuracy, changes we urgently need to implement.

Witness identification is not the only contributor to wrongful convictions. Far from it. Politicians – a category that includes elected officials, district attorneys and judges – need to be less concerned about remaining in office and more concerned with determining the truth. More effort needs to be given to see that court-appointed attorneys have adequate compensation and investigation funds. Until these issues are addressed and reforms put in place, the number of innocent men and women sent to prison will continue to rise.

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?

For years I supported capital punishment, but I have come to believe that our criminal justice system is incapable of adequately distinguishing between the innocent and guilty. It is reprehensible and immoral to gamble with life and death.

I am no bleeding heart. I have been a Republican for over 30 years. I started my career as a supporter of removing violent people from society for as long as possible, and I still believe that to be appropriate.

But I also believe that the government should be held to the strictest burden before it deprives a citizen of his freedom. It is not too much to ask that we not convict and execute innocent people in our quest to enforce the law. Let’s get this system fixed.

To view the piece on the Dallas Morning News website, click here.

Named for Cole, who was posthumously exonerated of a 1985 Lubbock rape after serving 13 years in prison, Senate Bill 1736 would provide compensation for family members of wrongfully convicted Texans and increases compensation levels for other exonerees.

“The Tim Cole case should serve as a wake-up call to Texas,” said state Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, who sponsored the bill with Sen. Robert Duncan, R-Lubbock. “It is time to get our house in order and enact reforms that, wherever possible, can help avert miscarriages of justice before they happen.”

Duncan agreed: “Tim Cole’s untimely death was not in vain. Criminal justice in Texas will be more fair and compensation for those wrongly convicted will be more adequate because the Legislature responded to Mr. Cole’s terrible and sad struggle.”

The bill will increase the lump sum compensation for all exonerees from $50,000 to $80,000 per year of incarceration, including time spent in city or county jail. Current compensation only applies to time in a state prison cell.

Under the measure, a person who receives a subsequent felony conviction loses their eligibility for compensation, as does current law.

The bill allows lump sum compensation of $25,000 per year spent on parole or registered as a sex offender.

The measure also allows the lump sum compensation to pass to the family in the event the innocent person dies before release, as Timothy Cole did. And it creates lifetime annuity payments to the exoneree based on a present value of the lump sum compensation, annuitized using a five-percent interest rate and payable in equal monthly installments using actuarial factors.

The bill also provides up to 120 hours of free tuition if the claimant desires to attend a state college.

Click here to read the rest of the Statesman’s blog entry.