Scott Henson reports on the 17th exoneration (see also here) of a citizen in Dallas who had previously been wrongly convicted. This time prosecutors withheld exculpatory evidence from the defendant’s lawyers and police failed to investigate it. New Dallas District Attorney Craig Watkins continues to investigate what appears to be have been a culture of abject injustice within the Dallas County D.A.’s office. I will not be surprised if there are more exonerations.
By the way, the rest of the country is noticing this outrage.
I am endlessly astonished by the incredibly poor incentives built into our criminal justice system. When prosecutors and police commit malfeasance which by ordinary standards of justice rises to the level of criminal, they’re “punished” by freeing those they prosecuted, but roll on often without even sanction, to their next illegal effort. That’s hardly sufficient recompense when they’ve jailed an innocent person, and a disaster when a guilty person is set free.