Judge John Creuzot is hugged by Charles Chatman
A man imprisoned since 1981 for sexual assault was freed after a judge recommended overturning his conviction.
Charles Chatman, 47, was released on his recognizance after serving nearly 27 years of a 99-year sentence. He was freed on the basis of new DNA testing that lawyers say proves his innocence and adds to Dallas County’s nationally unmatched number of wrongfully convicted inmates.
Chatman became the 15th inmate from Dallas County since 2001 to be freed by DNA testing. That is more than any other county nationwide, said Natalie Roetzel of the Innocence Project of Texas, an organization of volunteers who investigate claims of wrongful conviction.
Texas leads the country in prisoners freed by DNA testing. Including Chatman, the state will have released at least 30 wrongfully convicted inmates since 2001, according to the Innocence Project.
Texas surely leads the nation in lots of “traditional” categories.
Thank Science for DNA tests!
Hoo-Ahh!!
Thankfully there is still some form of justice available in Texas. In good faith though, Texas should not be singled out. Almost every State has similar issues. The police and prosecutors refuse to admit they made any errors and Judges who came from those ranks will continue to insist that the system worked – the first time.
Although this has been repeated many times here at DU, those who prosecute must be held responsible for lying under oath or judicial misconduct. The District Attorney losing his Law License in the Duke University case is an aberration that only came to light because the families had money.
Mr Catshit—I wish you’d say something wrong so’s I could disagree with you. Instead, all I can do is quibble.
“Some kind of justice” does indeed describe Texas. The guy sat in jail for what–10 years now, when DNA could have exonerated him. The system did not work. Volunteers performing a civic (get it?==a CIVIC service) freed him. I guess there was “justice” in that the system didn’t fight the conclusive evidence as it so often does.
Before he was elected, I recall the Chimp in Chief, ex Gov of Texass, laughing and grinning when taking credit for having the highest death penalty executions in the GOUSA. He showed his character pretty early, and consistently.
How many more innocent people are in jail, while their dna sits in refrigerators without funds or interest in having it tested?
#4 – Maybe you should back up those convictions and donate to the cause. Unfortunately, those with your same point of view are more likely to donate to a political party.
There needs to be more details about a case before people say someone is exonerated by a DNA test. It is possible for someone to commit a crime without leaving DNA, or for someone else’s DNA to be at a crime scene.
#5 & #6 —are you two tag teaming for the stupid award this new year?
I don’t follow #5’s point at all. What does “backing up the convictions” mean? What is your source for concluding that those who support robust use of DNA to convict or set free are more likely to contribute to political parties? What difference would it make if such were true?
#6–People get convicted because body fluids/parts get left at the crime scene and the blood type is matched to “the perpetrator” of the crime. DNA can show that while the blood type is the same, the actual physical evidence comes from someone other than the person charged. You should be all for this as wrongful convictions MEANS that the actually guilty person is still out there. But you are witlessly correct–when there is no DNA evidence, DNA testing does not exonerate anyone. Good job!
Bobbo, you’re very good at not understanding my posts. That’s not the only way people get convicted, and if that’s what happened here, then it’s good to see the conviction overturned. However, many times the convictions are based on eyewitnesses, perhaps unreliable, or other evidence. The DNA ‘exonerations’ aren’t necessarily valid in that case.
Can he sue the state?
#9 hey, its America, he can sue, the state, the Union, his High school principal, McDonald’s, or even Some poor Bob from Alaska, doesn’t mean he should though. BUT, he should get some sort of automatic compensation for the travesty. Suing . What makes America America, ( and ridiculed by the rest of the world)
#9 Only if the prosecution or police were guilty of wrong doing and I’ve seen nothing in any story on this that that was the case.
DNA as evidence wasn’t around 27 years ago. It is now and it is helping put the guilty in jail and helping keep the not guilty out. This is a good think.
It should also be noted that Dallas was actually progressive and retained all their biological samples over the past several decades, unlike most any other County. So people are calling Dallas and Texas backwards for all these wrongful convictions when in fact science finally caught up Dallas was ready. So most every other county doesn’t even have the evidence to exonerate people, that doesn’t mean they sent the wrong people up the river too. It means this state saves your ass as much as it likes to shoot it off!
Take careful note, kidz;
Exactly as I have been saying repeatedly, notice that he was – just as virtually all who have been found to have been wrongfully convicted and sentenced to death – convicted on eyewitness evidence alone.
His picture was selected from a photo lineup. That’s it. “Him. That’s him. I’m sure it was.”
The core of the problem here in Texas is that police, prosecutors and judges accept that as being ‘good enough,’ despite the overwhelming avalanche of incontrovertible proof that it absolutely is NOT good enough. Some refuse to accept that eyewitness evidence is the utter worst kind, while others, out to maximize their conviction or case clearance rate, simply don’t give a shit that the person charged may not be guilty. They couldn’t care less that an innocent person die and a murderer get away with it – they just want a conviction. They should be in prison themselves, for a loooong time.
Neither fucking side gives a shit about justice or guilt. It’s a high stakes game with big cash prizes and the sole object is to WIN.
• • • • •
#4 – bobbo
“How many more innocent people are in jail, while their dna sits in refrigerators without funds or interest in having it tested?”
Actually? Very, very few. You have to look long and hard to find the ones who aren’t on Death Row because of slam-dunk proof that they are guilty as sin.
What is a crying shame is all the foul subhuman scum that have gotten life sentences – with the possibility of parole – and fully deserve to be taken out and shot without delay. There’s 100X more slime that should be on Death Row and are not, than those who ARE there and should NOT be…
He’d better be a model citizen for the rest of his life, otherwise the resentful cops who caught him and the even more resentful DA who sent him to jail will make sure even a parking ticket will send him jail.
I wouldn’t cross the street to piss on the the Amerikan Justassholes System if it were on fucking fire.
#13. Be careful tossing around those “the guilty greatly outnumber the innocent on death row” stats. Illinois exonerated more death row inmates than they executed.
#8. to get your conviction overturned on actual innocence grounds you have to prove that no reasonable juror, viewing the new evidence, would have found you guilty. that’s pretty damn compelling.
there are probably a few folks who could get a new trial based on DNA evidence, because the fact that someone else’s DNA was there and it does not prove the defendant innocent. but those are going to be fairly rare. and they should still get their new trials.
17,
“there are probably a few folks who could get a new trial based on DNA evidence, because the fact that someone else’s DNA was there and it does not prove the defendant innocent. but those are going to be fairly rare. ”
Can you please site a source for this assumption other than out of thin air? Otherwise it is just bullshit. Many have been exonerated and many more wait for justice.
#18. I think you misunderstand – people who only partially exonerated (ie get a new trial, rather than outright release) are going to be rare.
my source? I read BNA’s Criminal Law Reporter, which covers these things. people going home are more common than people just getting new trials.
I bet he is back in prison in a year.
MikeN,
I don’t know about forensic techniques 30 years ago, but it is nearly impossible to not not leave trace DNA evidence. It is falling off your skin every moment (the dust in your house for example is mostly human skin)and you spray it around when you talk and breath. With the modern replication techniques the forensic scientists can get the DNA profile of everyone who walks through a room. About the only way to avoid it, is cover your body head to toe in a prophylactic covering and breath through a face mask. In a rape kit they take samples from all over the victims body, and isolate the DNA profiles everyone who was even ~near~ the victim.
These cases that are freeing people have all been trace evidence cases, because if there is no DNA on the victim or in the victims cloths… Then that guy is definitely not the one that raped her. It is conclusive.
Well Mr CSI, who knew that the police were so effective. I guess we should expect to see DNA evidence in every trial then?
Most of the people who are on death row or in jail for so long, it means the crimes and investigations happened in the late 80s early 90s or earlier.
#22,
Actually, my current knowledge of the state of the art testing is a result of the Crystal Gail Mangum rape hoax. With PCR+STP testing they were able to get the genetic fingerprint of everyone she had been with(even though theoretically they used condoms), which was then omitted from the discovery process, as well as missing any trace evidence from her vaginal swabs, and underpants. Also, they overplayed the trace evidence they found on her arms.
And I tend to consume Law and Order more than CSI.
Also, if I ever end up on a jury for a violent crime and there is no DNA trace evidence, yup, it is going to influence my decision. It is cheap and nearly 100% effective.
#21 & 23. your average drive-by shooting is not going to leave any DNA behind, nor is your average liquor-store holdup. the cops are not going to sweep the sidewalk or the floor of a 7-11 for DNA fragments.
But that doesn’t matter. Drivebys and armed robberies that go bad are rarely capital cases. Rape-murders, torture-murders. Multiple homicides, going on a shooting spree, slashing little kids’ throats, pistol-whipping little old Samaritan ladies, blowing cops away. Those are the kind of things that bring in the death penalty, and they are seldom the sort of crimes that lack all physical evidence.
That is why, as I keep reminding people, the only ones who wind up being exonerated have been convicted without any physical evidence.
That same DNA tech that frees those convicted on bullshit eyewitness accounts is the same tech that put most of those on Death Row where they are, with no chance in Hell of their being innocent.
Write your Senator, your rep. Tell ’em they need to ban the DP for cases without physical evidence. Then the tiny number of factually innocent will not be at risk of execution, and the removal of the truly deserving from human society can proceed without worry over executing an innocent. And we can then all move on to bigger matters.
The people they need to be executing are the corporate executives that destroy people’s lives by devaluing their 401K’s, taking golden parachutes and leaving tens of thousands of workers without jobs.
It’s a sticky issue.
There is a difference, and we have yet to even start examining it, between directly taking, say, the life of one human – and taking, say, 1/1000 of a life from each of 1000 people, which still amounts to taking one complete human life, just on the installment plan.
can he sue?…you bet your ass…should he?…you bet your ass…..this is a classic case of our judicial system convicting someone without sufficient evidence. our system used to b
“innocent until proven guilty”…now its “your going to jail unless you can prove beyond a shadow that you are inocent”..i think he should sue there ass for millions and millions. the guys life is ruined…how ca he susrvive,get a job,etc now?? no matter what, hes going to look guilty,period, or else why would he have spend most of his life in prison….. i think the government should take the adverage income for the area, and times it by how may years the guy spent in jail, and cut him a freakin check