Innocence Blog

Will Texas Legislators Return for Innocence Reforms?

Posted: June 9, 2009 5:45 pm

Texas Gov. Rick Perry told reporters this afternoon that the state legislature will definitely have a special session this summer to deal with “a number of really good pieces of legislation.” Perry said that among the pending legislation that should be addressed is a bill that would have given him the power to posthumously pardon Tim Cole, who was exonerated ten years after he died in prison while serving for a crime he didn’t commit.

Texas lawmakers ended their session last week with several critical reforms addressing wrongful convictions still on the table. Although an improvement to exoneree compensation was passed and signed by Perry this year, bills requiring recorded interrogation and improved eyewitness identification were stalled by legislative maneuvering.

Read today’s update here. (Dallas Morning News, 06/09/09)