Why Tarrant County has many fewer exonerations than Dallas County?" Lack of full disclosure procedures may be key; Bob Ray Sanders. Star-Telegram;

STORY: "Why Tarrant County has many fewer exonerations than Dallas," by columnist Bob Ray Sanders, published in the Star-Telegram on July 21, 2012; (Thanks to the Wrongful Convictions Blog for bringing this insightful story to our attention);

GIST: "The sickening statistics in Dallas County got me wondering why things were so different in the adjoining county of Tarrant, where there has been only one exoneration since 2001, the year Mark Amos Webb was freed after serving 13 years of a 30-year sentence for a sexual assault he did not commit.........So, the simple answer as to why Tarrant County's exoneration rate is lower than Dallas' is that Tarrant County has made fewer mistakes than the larger county to the east. Conder attributes that to the fact that Tarrant County has always had "a lot more disclosure" than Dallas, having had for a long time an open-file policy permitting defense attorneys access to prosecutors' files before trial. Dallas County didn't institute such a policy until 2006. "Cases that shouldn't have been tried, we didn't try them," Conder said. This is not to say that there are no other wrongly convicted people from Tarrant County, but it's good to know there have long been procedures in place that helped prevent many of the horrendous miscarriages of justice we've seen in Dallas and other places around the state."

The entire story can be found at:

http://www.star-telegram.com/2012/07/21/4115994/why-tarrant-county-has-much-fewer.html

For a contrary point of view (also with thanks to the Wrongful Convictions Blog):

http://wrongfulconvictionsblog.org/2012/07/24/6053/

PUBLISHER'S NOTE:

I am monitoring this case. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments.

The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at:

http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith

Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at:

http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html

Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com

Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog.