CLAUDE JONES: EDITORIAL; DALLAS MORNING NEWS; UNFLINCHING SEARCH FOR TRUTH;

"The judge signed an order this week to allow modern DNA testing on the hair. Texas leads the nation with 40 wrongful convictions exposed by new DNA testing, adding up to 558 years in prison, according to the Innocence Project. If a forensic test unravels a case that sent a person to the death chamber, it's vital to know."

EDITORIAL; THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS; Wikipedia informs us that, "The Dallas Morning News is the major daily newspaper serving the Dallas, Texas (USA) area, with a circulation of 263,810 subscribers, the Audit Bureau of Circulations reported in October 2009. It was founded on October 1, 1885, by Alfred Horatio Belo as a satellite publication of the Galveston Daily News, of Galveston, Texas. Today it has one of the 20 largest paid circulations in the United States."

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BACKGROUND: Time magazine contains a six-page long investigation by Nathan Thornburgh about a rural Texas case that might have led to the execution of somebody who did not commit the murder of a liquor store owner. The dead liquor store owner is Allen Hilzandager, murdered in 1989. The dead convicted murderer is Claude Jones, executed by the state of Texas in 2000. The context of the Time investigation is that testable DNA evidence (a hair from the crime scene) might prove Jones’ innocence. The Innocence Project based in New York City and Texas Observer magazine have been advocating the testing. The prosecutor in San Jacinto County has been successfully opposing it - until now.

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"The search for the truth in death penalty cases should not stop at the grave, and a judge's ruling in San Jacinto County has made sure of that," the Dallas Morning News editorial, published earlier today in the :Hits and Misses" section, under the heading, "Unflinching search for truth," begins.

"Claude Jones was executed 10 years ago for the murder of a liquor store owner," the editorial continues.

"The only physical evidence against him came from a hair test based on a microscopic comparison that is considered unreliable today. The judge signed an order this week to allow modern DNA testing on the hair. Texas leads the nation with 40 wrongful convictions exposed by new DNA testing, adding up to 558 years in prison, according to the Innocence Project. If a forensic test unravels a case that sent a person to the death chamber, it's vital to know. All the faults of the criminal justice system should be on display, no matter how disturbing."

The editorial can be found at:

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/opinion/editorials/stor /DN-hitsandmisses_0619edi.State.Edition1.4999f7b.html


Harold Levy...hlevy15@gnail.com;