Dallas editorial: State needs innocence commission

10.12.07

The editorial board of the Dallas Morning News this week called for the creation of a state innocence commission, which failed to pass in the legislature during the 2007 session. Six states have created commissions to study the causes of wrongful convictions and recommend reforms to prevent future injustice.

The concept is this: A broad-based commission of experts would examine breakdowns in the criminal justice system and pinpoint ways they might have been prevented. Lawmakers could follow up by putting reforms into law.

In a state with 29 documented DNA-linked exonerations – more than any other in the nation – any serious effort to improve criminal justice is laudable. Especially for Dallas County, which accounts for 13 of those 29 exonerations.


Read the full editorial here

. (Dallas Morning News, 10/10/07)

Read

more about innocence commissions

and

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of the six states with commission.

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