Dallas hires new prosecutor to oversee DNA cases

Michael Ware, the director of the Innocence Project of Texas, will become the new Dallas County special assistant prosecutor for overseeing DNA evidence and ensuring that previous county convictions are reviewed for the possibility of DNA testing. Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins announced Ware’s appointment today.

Ware, a professor at Texas Wesleyan University Law School, will lead a new department created last month to ensure the intergrity of past convictions and ensure that the county’s DNA cases are properly handled in the future. Watkins requested funds to create the new department after several recent DNA exonerations in Dallas County. Thirteen people have been proven innocent in Dallas due to DNA evidence, more than any other county in America.

Mr. Ware's "expertise and professional experience are certain to be an asset to our justice system as we focus resources toward making sure we convict people who are indeed guilty of crimes," Mr. Watkins said in a prepared statement. "Equally important is the assurance that innocent people are not wrongfully imprisoned, and having Mr. Ware on board will help us in these critical areas."

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. (Dallas Morning News, 5/25/07)

Read about the

13 people

whose convictions were overturned by DNA testing in Dallas County.