truth hangs by a hair

hat — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 13:34:04 -0800

A DNA test has proven that a man was executed for murder by the State of Texas on the basis of false forensic evidence. From The Texas Observer:

Claude Jones always claimed that he wasn’t the man who walked into an East Texas liquor store in 1989 and shot the owner. He professed his innocence right up until the moment he was strapped to a gurney in the Texas execution chamber and put to death on December 7, 2000. His murder conviction was based on a single piece of forensic evidence recovered from the crime scene—a strand of hair—that prosecutors claimed belonged to Jones. But DNA tests completed this week at the request of the Observer and the New York-based Innocence Project show the hair didn’t belong to Jones after all.

From the Innocence Project press release:

[Texas governor at the time] George Bush, who was awaiting a decision from the Florida Supreme Court on whether the presidential election recount would continue, denied Jones’ request for a 30 day stay of execution to do DNA test on the hair sample. The memo from the General Counsel’s office that recommended against the stay did not tell Bush that Jones was seeking a DNA test of the hair. Evidence that the hair “matched” Jones was critical to the prosecution’s case at trial and proved to be the key factor in a narrow 3-2 decision by the Texas Court of Appeals finding there was sufficient corroboration of the accomplice who testified against Jones to uphold the murder conviction. “I have no doubt that if President Bush had known about the request to do a DNA test of the hair he would have would have issued a 30-day stay in this case and Jones would not have been executed,” said Barry C. Scheck, Co-Founder and Co-Director of the Innocence Project, which is affiliated with Cardozo School of Law.

San Jacinto County district attorney Bill Burnett was an assistant prosecutor on Claude Jones's case and later, as DA, attempted to have the hair strand evidence destroyed rather than allow testing. Under Texas law, he said, the only person who could request a DNA test was the imprisoned inmate. In this case, the inmate was already dead. Burnett did not live to see the hair tested. He died of pancreatic cancer earlier this year just days before a judge ruled that the evidence had to be handed over to an independent forensics laboratory. The DNA test results do not prove that Claude Jones was innocent of murder. They do show that Claude Jones' conviction and eventual execution were based on demonstrably false evidence. Dave Mann of The Texas Observer will be talking about the DNA test news on KUT 90.5 FM from Austin, Texas at 4:44 pm CST. You can listen online. The Texas Observer's reporting:

September 6 and 20, 2007 — Truth Hangs by a Hair: Observer, Innocence Project fight to preserve evidence that could show if innocent man was executed: part 1, part 2 follow-up
June 15, 2010 — DNA Could Show If Claude Jones Was Wrongly Executed: Innocence Project, Observer Win Access to Key Evidence from 1989 Murder
November 11, 2010 — DNA Tests Undermine Evidence in Texas Execution: New results show Claude Jones was put to death on flawed evidence

TIME Magazine's pieces this year:

May 31, 2010 — In Texas, Seeking the Truth About an Executed Man (longform)
June 15, 2010 — Ruling Could Uncover the Truth in a Texas Execution
November 12, 2010 — DNA Testing Casts Doubt on Texas Man's Execution

Innocence Project links:

Innocence Project: Claude Jones resource center
The original General Counsel memorandum to Governor Bush, recommending against the stay of execution (PDF)
The DNA test report (PDF)

Also:

Texas Department of Criminal Justice: Executed Offenders with photo file of Claude Howard Jones
Previously on MeFi: Barry Scheck and the Innocence Project

C'etait Un Rendezvous

Armitage Shanks — Thu, 10 Nov 2005 08:08:43 -0800

"On an August morning in 1978, French filmmaker Claude Lelouch mounted a gyro-stabilized camera to the bumper of a Ferrari 275 GTB and had a friend, a professional Formula 1 racer, drive him at breakneck speed through the heart of Paris. [...] Upon showing the film in public for the first time, Lelouch was arrested. He has never revealed the identity of the driver, and the film went underground until a DVD release a few years ago." Coral cache quicktime here.

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truth hangs by a hair

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