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Dispatch from Dallas: Eugene Henton is freed
Posted: October 26, 2007 3:40 pm
By Vanessa Potkin, Innocence Project Staff Attorney
I’m writing from Dallas, where I spent the morning in court with two men who are already free after being exonerated through DNA testing and two wrongfully convicted men who had hearings seeking their release from custody.
Eugene Ivory Henton walked out of the courtroom today a free man for the first time in more than a decade. Mr. Henton served nearly two years in prison in the 1980s for a sexual assault DNA now proves he didn’t commit and was later imprisoned again for unrelated charges and given harsh sentences reserved for repeat offenders.
After Mr. Henton and his attorneys secured the DNA testing that cleared him of the wrongful sexual assault conviction last year, he filed for the sentences on unrelated charges to be reconsidered in light of the fact that his contact with the criminal justice system was forever marred by the wrongful conviction. The Texas court system did the right thing by throwing out those harsh sentences – and today a judge resentenced Mr. Henton to time served. He walked out of the courtroom into the arms of his family. Technically, he was exonerated in 2006 (and is one of 13 Dallas County men exonerated by DNA testing since 2001), but today he is finally free.
In the courtroom with me this morning were Texas exonerees James Waller and James Giles. Mr. Waller and Mr. Giles were exonerated by DNA testing this year. The two of them knew each other while wrongfully incarcerated at the massive Coffield state prison and have rallied around others joining their “family of exonerees.”
In Mr. Chabot’s case we agree with the Dallas District Attorney’s office and the judge that his conviction should be overturned, and we’re waiting for Court of Criminal Appeals, the state’s highest criminal court, to rule on that request. Meanwhile, a hearing on bail in his case has been continued until next week. We will keep you updated here on the Innocence Blog as there are developments in the case.
Learn more:
Read about Clay Chabot’s case here.
Read about Eugene Ivory Henton’s case:
Dallas Morning News: Judge orders release of prisoner exonerated by DNA
Eugene Ivory Henton’s Innocence Project case profile
Tags: James Giles, Eugene Henton, James Waller, Clay Chabot
Texas man marks one year of freedom
Posted: March 10, 2008 3:42 pm
One year ago yesterday, James Waller was officially exonerated in Texas. He served 10 years in prison – and another 13 years as a registered sex offender – before DNA proved his innocence of a rape. Waller was wrongfully convicted partly based on the child victim’s misidentification of him.
Waller is one of 14 men exonerated by DNA testing in Dallas County, more than any other county in the nation. Read more about the other Dallas exonerations here.
Other exoneration anniversaries this week:
Sunday: Cody Davis, Florida (Served 5 Months, Exonerated 03/09/07)
Tuesday: Michael Anthony Williams, Louisiana (Served 23.5 Years, Exonerated 03/11/05)
Saturday: Kenneth Waters, Massachusetts (Served 17.5 Years, Exonerated 03/15/2001)
John Willis, Illinois (Served 7 Years, Exonerated 03/02/99)
Tags: Texas, James Waller
"60 Minutes" on James Woodard's release in Dallas
Posted: May 5, 2008 10:29 am
CBS News’ “60 Minutes” has been following James Lee Woodard’s case for over a year, since he was first granted the DNA testing that eventually proved his innocence. Last week, he was released after serving 27 years for a rape he didn’t commit, and “60 Minutes” cameras were in the courtroom.
The “60 Minutes” story features interviews with Woodard, his attorneys at the Innocence Project of Texas and several other men exonerated in Dallas after serving years in prison for crimes they didn’t commit.
"Unfortunately, Mr. Woodard you're not getting justice today,” Dallas Judge Mark Stoltz tells Woodard. “You're just getting the end of injustice.”Read more about James Lee Woodard and other proven innocent by DNA testing in Dallas County.
Watch the full story online. (60 Minutes, 05/04/08)
Tags: James Giles, Eugene Henton, Billy James Smith, James Waller, Gregory Wallis
Texas Summit on Wrongful Convictions starts an important conversation
Posted: May 9, 2008 3:47 pm
More than 100 key leaders from Texas’ criminal justice system came together yesterday in Austin to discuss the causes of wrongful convictions and changes necessary to free the innocent, improve forensic testing and prevent future injustice. Texas leads the nation in wrongful convictions overturned by DNA testing – with 31 people exonerated from 10 counties across the state. The first Summit on Wrongful Convictions in the nation, yesterday’s meeting was called by Texas State Sen. Rodney Ellis to advance the state’s dialogue on wrongful convictions. Nine people freed by DNA testing in Texas attended the event, each standing up to tell their stories.
One by one, nine wrongly convicted men stood up on the floor of the Texas Senate on Thursday to explain how innocent men ended up in prison and how to prevent it from happening again.Watch a new Innocence Project video featuring interviews with three Texas exonerees: Brandon Moon, Chris Ochoa and Ronnie Taylor.
"I'm here to tell you I lost everything. I am still hurting. I am still broken," said James Giles, who spent 10 years in prison for a rape he did not commit. "We can do better in the justice system. The system failed all of us."
…The applause was loudest when Giles tore up his sex offender registration card, something he had to carry for 15 years while he was on parole before getting exonerated. He ripped it up, he said, because he had a new card to carry: a voter registration card.
Read the full story here. (Associated Press, 05/08/08)
Tags: Texas, James Giles, Christopher Ochoa, James Waller, Innocence Commissions
Texas prosecutors reflect on their role in wrongful convictions
Posted: June 9, 2008 12:05 pm
A groundbreaking article in this week’s issue of Texas Lawyer tells of a dozen Dallas exonerations through the eyes of the trial prosecutors. Their reflections on these cases represent a range of perspectives, but common themes emerge. There is consensus that eyewitness identification is unreliable on its own and that cases resting on a single eyewitness are a recipe for wrongful conviction. Prosecutors agree that forensic science has improved the quality of justice in American courtrooms. Many prosecutors remembered every detail of these convictions years later, and worked for the defendant’s release soon after learning of new DNA evidence proving innocence.
Prosecutors call these wrongful convictions “tragic” and one says that hindsight is 20-20.
"I don't fault anyone for doing what they're doing," Prosecutor Douglas Fletcher says. "But you can look back on any profession. Doctors can look back at doctors 30 years ago and say . . . "Why were they treating cancer that way?'"Another prosecutor, James Fry, says the unreliable nature of eyewitness identifications has been exposed by these exonerations.
… "In the criminal justice system, people are being convicted on one-witness cases. And what this says to me is we've got an inherent problem about how many of these cases we're getting wrong. And it's still going on today," says James Fry, a former Dallas prosecutor who helped send a man to prison for 27 years for a crime he didn't commit. "My question to everybody involved in this across the state and across the nation is what are we going to do about this? I don't know."Read the full story here. (Texas Lawyer, 06/06/08)
Tags: Charles Chatman, Wiley Fountain, Larry Fuller, James Giles, Donald Wayne Good, Andrew Gossett, Billy Wayne Miller, David Shawn Pope, James Waller, Gregory Wallis, Eyewitness Identification, Eyewitness Misidentification
The Texas Exonerated
Posted: October 27, 2008 4:05 pm
A feature in this month’s Texas Monthly profiles 37 people cleared with DNA testing after serving a combined 525 years in prison.
The first thing you notice is the eyes—they all have the same look in them, the look of men accustomed to waking up every morning in a prison cell. These 37 men spent years, and in some cases decades, staring through bars at a world that believed they were guilty of terrible crimes. But they weren’t. Each was convicted of doing something he did not do. It’s hard to characterize the look in their eyes. There’s anger, obviously, and pride at having survived hell, but there’s also hurt, and a question: “Why me?”Visit the Texas Monthly website for video of a photoshoot with 21 exonerees and audio slideshows telling the stories of more than a dozen.
The short answer is simple: People make mistakes. Most of these cases share a common story line: A woman, usually a traumatized rape victim, wrongly identifies her attacker. Sometimes her testimony is backed by rudimentary serology tests. Sometimes the cases are pushed too hard by aggressive police officers or prosecutors.
Tags: James Giles, Entre Nax Karage, Carlos Lavernia, Brandon Moon, Christopher Ochoa, Anthony Robinson, Ronald Taylor, Patrick Waller, James Waller, Gregory Wallis
Two Years Later, James Waller Goes on Living
Posted: March 9, 2009 11:15 am
Two years ago today, a pardon from Texas Gov. Rick Perry started a new chapter in James Waller’s life. Waller had served 10 years in prison for a 1983 rape he didn’t commit and another 13 years on parole as a registered sex offender. In 2006, DNA testing obtained by the Innocence Project finally proved his innocence. He was 50 years old. On March 9, 2007, the pardon made his exoneration official.
He spoke with the Dallas Examiner recently about the struggles to build a new life.
“Nobody can give me (those years) back. I remember I did an interview with public radio in South Carolina. And the guy said, ‘Uh, what do you do? Do you go back 25 years and start new?’ Naw! You just catch in where you’re at,” Waller said. “I can’t go back to when I was 26-years-old and live as a 26-year-old. I’m 52 years old. (I was 50 years old at the time.) I gotta live as a 50-year-old man. I missed out on a whole lot. So what? Just continue where I’m at, 50 years old. Living.”Read the Dallas Examiner story and more about James Waller’s case.
Other anniversaries this week:
Monday: Cody Davis, Florida (Served 5 Months, Exonerated 03/09/07)
Wednesday: Michael Anthony Williams, Louisiana (Served 23.5 Years, Exonerated 03/11/05)
Tags: James Waller
Friday Roundup: What’s Next?
Posted: April 3, 2009 6:06 pm
Miguel Roman was officially exonerated in Connecticut this week, and there are dozens of additional cases around the country in which exculpatory evidence – DNA or otherwise – has surfaced and may lead to exoneration. Here’s a roundup of cases and other news that we’re watching closely:
A comprehensive review of thousands of Virginia cases is ongoing, and testing has uncovered evidence of innocence in at least two additional cases there. Victor Anthony Burnette is seeking a pardon from Gov. Tim Kaine and lawyers for Thomas Haynesworth say DNA clears him as well.
Articles in the Wall Street Journal and Slate considered new forensic research aiming to determine physical characteristics from DNA tests. While investigators say this could be a helpful tool to corroborate other evidence, others worry that this discipline, which is not 100% accurate, could lead to wrongful convictions.
The new Pennsylvania Innocence Project officially opened this week and has begun working to uncover injustice in the state.
Mississippi adopted a new exoneree compensation law this week, and Georgia lawmakers awarded $500,000 to John Jerome White, who spent 22 years in prison after being wrongfully convicted. There’s momentum in several other states to pass compensation laws – will your state be next?
The exonerated continued working to raise awareness of wrongful convictions and press for criminal justice reform this week. Several exonerees, including Innocence Project client James Waller, testified on behalf of a package of reforms in the Texas legislature.
Marty Tankleff, who was freed in 2007 after serving 17 years in prison for a murder he didn’t commit, spoke about a new book on his case in a City University of New York podcast. And British exoneree Michael O’ Brien will discuss his book “The Death of Justice” at a festival in May in the United Kingdom.
Tags: James Waller
Ernest Sonnier’s First Days of Freedom
Posted: August 10, 2009 12:30 pm
Ernest Sonnier spent the weekend with his family for the first time in 23 years after he was freed from prison Friday based on evidence of his innocence. The Innocence Project will continue working to fully clear Sonnier’s name, as DNA testing has implicated the two real perpetrators of the crime for which Sonnier was convicted. The facts of the case are here.
More than 17 relatives – encompassing five generations and ranging in age from 18 months to 94 years – joined Sonnier at the Harris County Courthouse Friday as he was freed on bond pending further proceedings. Two other men proven innocent by DNA testing – James Giles and James Waller – were also on hand to congratulate and support Sonnier and his family.
Hundreds of Innocence Project supporters sent personal messages to Sonnier this weekend welcoming him home. Send yours here.
Here’s a sampling of media coverage of Sonnier’s release over the weekend:
Houston Chronicle: A Time for Hugs and Happiness (with video)
KHOU: Man Who Spent 23 Years in Jail Released on Bond After DNA Testing (with video)
KBMT: Man Freed After 23 Years in Prison Due to DNA Evidence (with video)
New York Times: Man Held for 23 Years Is Set Free by DNA Tests
AFP: DNA Tests Clear US Man After 23 Years in Prison
Associated Press: Texas Man Convicted of Rape Freed After DNA Tests
Grits for Breakfast: 'Nuther Exoneration Implicates Houston PD Crime Lab
Talk Left: DNA Frees Another TX Man – This One After 23 Years
Washington Post: Photo of James Giles and Ernest Sonnier
Tags: James Giles, James Waller, Ernest Sonnier
Surviving Injustice, Achieving Heaven on Earth
Posted: February 3, 2010 6:10 pm
The new book “How to Achieve a Heaven on Earth” includes 101 inspirational essays from “the world’s greatest thinkers, leaders and writers.” Included in this impressive group is James Waller, an Innocence Project client who was exonerated in 2007 in Texas after serving a decade in prison for a crime he didn’t commit.
Waller writes about the injustice he survived and the importance of seeking truth and justice. He says he has been guided in his life by the mantra of his “wonderful, wise grandmother,” who said: “always tell the truth, and the truth will set you free.” He goes on to say that the signs of heaven are evident when we fight for justice, tell the truth and remain faithful to the promises of God.
Today, Waller lives in Dallas, where he speaks frequently about his case and the causes of wrongful conviction, works with the homeless and supports others who have recently been exonerated.
Learn more about the new book, which also includes essays by Barack Obama, George Bush, Ted Turner, Leonard Pitts, Jr., and many others.
Tags: James Waller