why did the dallas county district attorney create the conviction integrity unit in 2007

He persuaded county leaders to spend about $450,000 to create the country’s first conviction integrity unit: two prosecutors, an investigator and a paralegal. By the time the unit started work in 2007, 400 prisoners convicted in Dallas County had appealed under a 2001 state law to have their DNA tested against evidence. Start there, Watkins said.

Full Answer

When was the first conviction integrity unit established?

Dallas County established the first conviction integrity unit in the United States in 2007. Now there are 24 such units across the country that work to identify and correct false convictions.

How many exonerations were there in 2015?

last year, according to a report by the National Registry of Exonerations. That’s 58 of the record-high 149 exonerations in 2015.

Who is the Dallas County District Attorney?

Dallas County District Attorney Faith Johnson. (Photo by Billy Surface) Johnson’s office also said that the CIU has reviewed the cases of 145 individuals since she took office in January 2017 under the direction of Cynthia Garza, who was formally appointed chief of the unit last July.

Who is Mike Ware?

Watkins forged a relationship with the Innocence Project of Texas to hunt for cases that were ripe for a second look, and the first head of the CIU, Mike Ware, a Fort Worth lawyer, is now the executive director of the Innocence Project of Texas.