Eighteen people have been exonerated of serious violent crimes from a single Texas county through DNA-testing in recent years. James Woodward was the latest person to be freed from confinement from Dallas County. He spent 27 years in prison for the wrongful conviction of raping and murdering his girlfriend in 1981. Statewide in Texas there have been 30 such exonerations. As a partial response, state Senator Rodney Ellis has called for a summit on innocence to take place on May 8, beginning in the Texas Senate chamber. Sen. Ellis said, “We’ve reached a tipping point on wrongful convictions in Texas. Nobody can seriously doubt that there’s a problem, and next week leaders from across our criminal justice system will come together to start solving it.”

Criminal justice reforms to prevent people from being wrongly convicted may include improving indigent defense, taking steps to ensure that eyewitness identification is reliable and videotaping confessions, Ellis said. Some of those who have been exonerated will attend the summit, along with judges, prosecutors, police and lawmakers .
(J. Elliott, “Exonerations prompt forum on convictions,” Houston Chronicle, April 30, 2008). Although James Woodward did not receive the death penalty for his conviction, Texas leads the country in death sentences and executions. Texas has executed 405 people since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. See Innocence.