Recent leg­is­la­tion passed in Texas indi­cates bipar­ti­san sup­port for crim­i­nal jus­tice reform in the state. Legislators recent­ly passed an eye­wit­ness-iden­ti­fi­ca­tion bill intend­ed to cut down on the num­ber of vic­tims and wit­ness­es who make mis­takes in in-per­son and pho­to­graph­ic line-ups. This new law will require police agen­cies to adopt pro­ce­dures and use tech­niques that help lessen the num­ber of false con­fes­sions. Another bill passed recent­ly will make it eas­i­er for con­vict­ed per­sons to have DNA mate­ri­als test­ed if the test­ing was not done before the tri­al or if updat­ed test­ing tech­niques might reveal infor­ma­tion that is more accu­rate than pre­vi­ous results. Finally, the leg­is­la­ture also passed a bill that would allow com­pen­sa­tion for the wrong­ful­ly accused even if orders of release do not specif­i­cal­ly include the terms ​“actu­al inno­cence.” The bill allows affi­davits by a dis­trict attor­ney in the crime’s juris­dic­tion or a spe­cial pros­e­cu­tor who offi­cial­ly inves­ti­gat­ed the case to pro­vide ver­i­fi­ca­tion of innocence.

(R. Casey, ​“Commentary: Good deeds amid par­ti­san squab­bles,” Houston Chronicle, May 30, 2011). See Innocence and Recent Legislative Activity.

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