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Apr 1, 2008 1:33 pm US/Central
Dallas County DNA Project Gets Another 2 Years
Commissioners OK Continued Funding For Conviction Integrity Unit
DALLAS (CBS/AP) ―
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DNA genetic graphic from AP images
AP
Dallas County and a civil rights foundation will spend more than $1 million combined to continue using DNA testing to review criminal convictions.
On Tuesday, Dallas County commissioners approved two additional years of funding for its Conviction Integrity Unit in the district attorney's office with a vote of 3-1.
There have been 15 wrongly convicted men exonerated by DNA testing in Dallas County since 2001, the most of any county in the nation.
"These are the individuals who have wrongly spent time in prison," explained Dallas District Attorney Craig Watkins. "We're not here to free the guilty, we're here to seek justice and see the innocent go free.
Commissioners approved more than $830,000 for attorney and investigator salaries. A grant from the Justice, Equality, Human Dignity and Tolerance Foundation will contribute more than $457,000 toward post-conviction DNA testing.
The Innocence Project of Texas, which is reviewing hundreds of cases in which jailed inmates, is contributing $36,000.
Commissioner Maurine Dickey called the funding "the right thing to do."
"I think we need to look at money not in the absolute cost of these attorneys, but in the money that can leverage and in this case this is a very important grant."
Fellow commissioner Ken Mayfield, however, disagrees, which he has from the start. "It hasn't changed my position," he said, adding that the Dallas District Attorney's office has a public defender assigned "to do nothing but look at these cases."
Mayfield and Watkins debated the program's effectiveness in a series of heated exchanges.
"There's no denying that what we do is right," the D.A. told the commissioner. "They may not agree with me politically, but this is an issue we don't need to play politics with. Since the program started, we've exonerated four individuals in two months."
Watkins also suggested the $435,000 the district used a year for the program become a permanent line item in the budget.
James Curtis Giles, Sr., spent 10 years in prison for a rape officials and DNA tests later confirmed he did not commit.
"It's evidence that lots of men have spent many, many years in prison -- including myself," he said with the belief it would take 25 years to clear his name.
"DNA would've cleared me. This (program) is something positive, there's nothing negative about this, if your DNA is present in a rape case, it's going to show that it's present in a rape case. It (wrong conviction) all worked for the good, but being in prison—taking your freedom -- is really ridiculous," he added.
"If you're doing good being a citizen, and all of a sudden you get a knock on your door because somebody made a mistake---that's a nightmare that'll take a while to overcome."
Another convict who later was cleared, Charles Chatman, spent 27 years behind bars.
He told the commissioners he fully supports the funding of the county project. "It virtually gave me my life back" and believes there are more inmates who can be cleared of their crimes for which they are accused.
(© 2010 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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