June 4, 2007
Since 2001, 13 prisoners were found through DNA evidence to have been wrongfully convicted
in Dallas County after serving a total of 185 years behind bars. Only Illinois and
New York, besides Texas, have had more convictions overturned by genetic testing than
Dallas County, a fact attributable in part to evidence retained to assure reconviction
in the event of a successful appeal.
Now, many more DNA exonerations could be in store under a review of more than 400
other cases ordered by Mr. Watkins, 39, who made history last November by eking out
a second-try victory in a Democratic landslide to become Texas’s first black district
attorney.