The Dallas County District Attorney's office has approved 3 additional post-conviction DNA tests for inmates seeking exoneration, prosecutor Mike Ware said Friday.
This brings the total of approved tests to 20 for those who were denied
under previous district attorney Bill Hill. Of those: 2 men have been
exonerated, 2 men were confirmed as the perpetrators and the other
cases are in various stages of testing or waiting to be tested.
Mr. Ware, who oversees the conviction integrity unit, declined to name
the inmates the DA's office agreed to test.
The review of about 350 inmates' previously denied tests is part of a
partnership between District Attorney Craig Watkins and the Innocence
Project of Texas. About 175 requests have now been reviewed.
Testing is typically denied if there is no evidence to test for DNA or
if testing does not prove guilt or innocence.
The 3 inmates, as well as others approved for testing, will not be
tested until the county finds out next month if it received an $800,000 grant,
which would be used by the conviction integrity unit.
Dallas County's 17 exonerations from genetic evidence is more than any
other county in the nation since the state passed a law in 2001
allowing post-conviction testing.
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