By Ryan Poppe, Texas Public Radio
AUSTIN – State lawmakers heard emotional testimony Tuesday about the problem of wrongful convictions in Texas. The solution might be more transparency.
The bill would set up the Timothy Cole Exoneration Commission, whose job it would be to examine a case of wrongful conviction after exoneration has already occurred. Cory Sessions is with the Texas Innocence Project and is the brother of the late Timothy Cole, who died in prison before his name could be cleared.
CORY SESSIONS: “The Commission would collect that information, formalize a report, make those recommendations, and also that information would later be forwarded on to the Chief Justice of the Texas Supreme Court.”
Of which Sessions says that the Chief Justice could decide whether to begin an inquiry of the prosecutors and law enforcement involved. Johnny Lindsey is an exoneree that spoke in favor of the bill. He was wrongfully imprisoned for 27-years for a sexual assault where he says evidence was questionable from the very beginning.
JOHNNY LINDSEY: “At the time we didn’t have DNA, so they did a blood match and my blood match didn’t match the perpetrator. The perpetrator’s blood type was O, my blood type is B.”
Lindsey says no part of the past 27 years have been easy. The bill was left pending in committee but is expected to be voted out for a full review before the Texas House.
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