Judge says Texas man should be exonerated in rape

[alp227]

Source: AP

DALLAS (AP) — A Dallas man who prosecutors say did not commit a 1990 rape for which he served 12 years in prison should be exonerated based on recent DNA testing, a judge recommended Friday.

The conviction of 57-year-old Michael Phillips should be vacated, Dallas County Criminal District Court Judge Gracie Lewis said. The matter now goes to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals; it was not immediately clear when it would make a ruling.

Dallas County district attorney Craig Watkins sought the exoneration after DNA testing identified another man as the culprit in the rape of a 16-year-old girl at a motel where both men lived. Watkins has an ongoing project of reviewing untested rape kits, even without defendants initiating the request.

"This is a great day for Mr. Phillips but a terrible day for our justice system," Watkins said Friday.

Read more: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/texas-prosecutor-seeks-clear-convicted-rapist

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Watkins has worked to exonerate the wrongfully accused throughout his tenure as DA. PBS interviewed him in 2011 in a similar case as this one.

[Journeyman]

1. An honorable DA . . .

Unfortunate that the statute of limitations has expired and the true culprit will avoid prosecution for the crime.

[candelista]

2. ...in a rotten system.

[Stallion]

4. Something Like 34th DNA Exoneration in Dallas County Alone

hard to fathom but obviously it probably only uncovers a fraction of the unjust sentences even in Dallas County because some offenses don't deal with DNA

[christx30]

8. And that makes me feel

Just awesome about the death penalty in Texas.

[Swede Atlanta]

3. And this is one of the reasons I oppose the death penalty......

We get it wrong. I wouldn't say we "suck" at criminal justice but we are far from being perfect.....very far.

Once you kill someone there is no going back. It is bad enough someone loses years of their one life due to mistakes made by US. It is our criminal justice system.

[tblue37]

6. According to Tony Scalia, though, *it doesn't matter* if we execute an innocent

person, as long as all the legal "T's" and "i's" have been crossed and dotted!

He actually said once that even if new evidence proves that a convicted person is innocent, that person should not be freed (or saved from execution in a death penalty case) if his appeals have all been used up.

Scalia is a monster. I wish he would get more publicity--and thus public shaming--when he makes such outrageous comments.

[someone else]

7. I don't have much sympathy for those who deserve death,

But I'm not sure the death penalty is punishment. It just hastens the inevitable. I think it's a good thing to try to exonerate innocents, regardless their sentence.

[christx30]

9. To me, it depends on the crime

and the age of the convict. Someone like Nidal Hassan should not get the death penalty. His crime was terrible, but (a) he wants to die a martyr, (b) he's relatively young, and (c) he was shot and paralyzed from the waist down during his shooting spree. He'll be in a wheelchair for the rest of his life. Death would be a release. I want him sitting in that chair for decades.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

10. Apart from murder, I can't think of too many crimes worse than rape

I celebrate the righting of the wrong in freeing an innocent man. I hope the real rapist who should have been convicted didn't go on to rape again. Any further women who were raped as a result of this terrible mistake are also victims.