Wrongful-convictions roundtable

On May 8, state Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, will greet more than 30 individuals representing the criminal justice system in Texas, including DAs, judges and police chiefs, for a roundtable discussion he proposed on the topic “Prevention of Wrongful Convictions.” Among the participants will be Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins, who recently pitched the idea that there should be punitive actions for prosecutors who intentionally hide evidence from defendants and their counsel, and whose office ushered in a new era in Texas last year by inviting the nonprofit Innocence Project to review case files, a move that has led to the exoneration of 17 wrongfully convicted individuals.  “[T]he goal of this initial roundtable discussion is to kick off an ongoing dialogue among the major decision-makers in the criminal justice system to address the disturbing number of wrongful convictions proven by post-conviction DNA testing in Texas, seek to reach a consensus on the underlying causes of those tragedies and identify solutions to prevent those tragedies from occurring in the future,” Ellis wrote in a May 1 letter to the individuals scheduled to attend the roundtable.

-- Miriam Rozen