Death Penalty

Today a Texas Judge issued a restraining order to prevent the state from destroying evidence that could show whether a man was truly guilty of the crime for which he was executed.

In 1990, Claude Jones was convicted of killing a man in a liquor store.  The only physical evidence used against him was a hair found on the counter in the store.  An expert for the state testified that the hair was consistant with Jones' hair. The hair evidence was also crucial in denying his appeals and on December 7, 2000, Jones was executed.

"According to the Innocence Project, mitochondrial DNA testing on the hair evidence could establish any of the following:

(1) Jones was guilty;

(2) the hair comes from the charged accomplice Dixon, which would strongly support a claim Jones was innocent (since Dixon denied being presentin the store); or

(3) the hair came from the victim or some other individual, which, by excluding Jones and contradicting the critical evidence against him at trial and relied on by the appeals courts, would mean there was not legally sufficient evidence to convict Jones, much less execute him."

Interestingly, "Texas leads the nation in the number of innocent people who were exonerated through DNA testing after being wrongfully convicted. Across the state, 29 people have been exonerated with DNA since 1994.... Nationwide, 207 people have been exonerated through DNA testing, 15 of whom were sentenced to die."

Please go to the Innocence project for more information on this story.