Innocence Blog
April 6, 2007
James Giles is expected to be cleared of 1982 rape on Monday
In a hearing Monday in Dallas, Innocence Project attorney Vanessa Potkin and attorneys from the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office will present evidence that proves James Curtis Giles didn’t participate in the 1982 gang rape for which he served 10 years in prison. Giles, 53, has been on parole as a registered as a sex offender for 14 years.
The crime was committed by three men who were acquaintances, and police were told that one was named James Giles. The victim identified James Curtis Giles in a lineup, even though he did not match her initial description of the perpetrator. DNA evidence now links two other men to the crime – and shows that they were both closely associated with another man, James Earl Giles, who lived near the crime scene and fits the victim’s initial description. New evidence shows that information linking the three true perpetrators to the crime – James Earl Giles and the two other men – was available to police and prosecutors before James Curtis Giles was convicted, but was illegally withheld from his defense attorneys.
Giles has fought for nearly two decades to prove his innocence. The Innocence Project began investigating his case in 2000, and the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office began reinvestigating it earlier this year after the Innocence Project filed initial legal papers to vacate the conviction. New evidence from both investigations will be presented in court Monday. He will still not be officially exonerated, however, until he is granted a writ of habeas corpus from Texas’ highest criminal court or a pardon from the governor.
On Tuesday, Giles will join Texas exonerees James Waller, Chris Ochoa and Brandon Moon, Innocence Project Co-Director Barry Scheck and legislators in Austin for a press conference and legislative hearing on bills to improve the criminal justice system in Texas.
Read more on this case in today’s news:
Rape victim is for exoneration: She ID'd man, now backs DA's bid to clear him in '82 case (Dallas Morning News, 4/6/07)
Hearing set for man who claims innocence in 1982 rape (Houston Chronicle, 4/5/07)
For more information on attending the hearings and press conferences Monday and Tuesday, email us at info@innocenceproject.org
Editorial: Antonio Beaver exoneration should spark reforms in Missouri
Last week, Antonio Beaver was freed from prison in Missouri after serving a decade behind bars for a carjacking he didn’t commit. An editorial in today’s St. Louis Post-Dispatch argues that steps to long-lasting criminal justice reform should be started immediately before more injustices can occur.
Eyewitness error is the leading cause of wrongful convictions nationwide, according to the Innocence Project, a national litigation and public policy organization based in New York….
The Missouri Bar Association or St. Louis Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce could begin to repair this broken cog in the criminal justice system by appointing a commission made up of police, prosecutors, judges, defense attorneys and other experts to study reforms implemented elsewhere and formulate guidelines for more accurate identification procedures.
Read the full editorial here. (St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 4/6/07)
Read more about Antonio Beaver’s case.
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