NEW VOICES: Dallas D.A. To Re-Examine Death Penalty Convictions and Possibly Halt Executions

Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins announced that he will be reex­am­in­ing near­ly 40 death penal­ty con­vic­tions in his coun­ty. No exe­cu­tions will occur in the coun­ty until he has reviewed the cas­es in detail. Watkins said he will start with the old­est cas­es as they are most like­ly to be sched­uled first. ​“I’m not say­ing I’m putting a mora­to­ri­um on the death penal­ty,” said Watkins. ​“It’s say­ing that maybe we should with­draw those dates and look at those cas­es from a new per­spec­tive to make sure that those indi­vid­u­als that are on death row need to be there and they need to be exe­cut­ed.” When cit­ing the rea­sons to exam­ine all of the death sen­tences his office inher­it­ed from his pre­de­ces­sor, he point­ed to recent exon­er­a­tions and prob­lems with the pros­e­cu­tion in those cas­es.

Law pro­fes­sor at Southern Methodist University Fred Moss said he has nev­er heard of anoth­er pros­e­cu­tor in the coun­try con­duct such a review. ​“It’s real­ly quite extra­or­di­nary,” said Moss. In Watkins’ first week in office, Patrick Waller was exon­er­at­ed for a 1992 rob­bery-rape. The statute of lim­i­ta­tions to pros­e­cute the true per­pe­tra­tors had passed and they couldn’t pros­e­cute the crim­i­nals who had con­fessed to the crime. Watkin’s pre­de­ces­sor, D.A. Bill Hill had denied DNA test­ing in this case, which if per­mit­ted ear­li­er, could have pre­vent­ed one of the true per­pe­tra­tors from being paroled and walk­ing free. ​“That’s real­ly what got me think­ing,” Mr. Watkins said. ​“This is larg­er than just hav­ing inno­cent folks in jail. This is about hav­ing crim­i­nals out on the street with cov­er to go and com­mit their offens­es.” The office’s recent­ly cre­at­ed Conviction Integrity Unit will be inves­ti­gat­ing the cas­es and is start­ing to review DNA test requests denied under for­mer D.A. Hill. Watkins explained, ​“I don’t want some­one to be exe­cut­ed on my watch for some­thing they didn’t do.”

(J. Emily, S. McGonigle, ​“Dallas County DA wants to re-exam­in near­ly all of pend­ing death row cas­es,” Dallas Morning News, September 16, 2008). See also Innocence and New Voices.