An omission in a memo given to then-Texas Gov. George W. Bush may have led to the 2000 execution of an innocent man
I am in no way in favor of the death penalty in any case, but it appears Bush did not know of Claude Jones’ request for DNA testing, and a spokesperson from the Innocence Projects indicates he believes Bush would have issued the delay had he known about the request.
BTW, I just finished reading John Grisham’s “The Confession” which is about the execution of an innocent man after the real culprit confesses. I found the book sort of plodded along and felt it was not nearly as well-written as some of his other books, but it was very interesting nonetheless.
An omission in a memo given to then-Texas Gov. George W. Bush may have led to the 2000 execution of an innocent man, according to an investigation by the Innocence Project, which helps exonerate wrongfully convicted inmates through DNA evidence.
The organization said today that Bush staffers never told the governor of death row inmate Claude Jones’ request to run a DNA test on a strand of hair.
The hair, which has now been proven through DNA testing not to belong to Jones, was the only physical evidence linking Jones to the 1989 murder of Allen Hilzendager, a liquor store employee in San Jacinto County, Texas
…
Paul Cates, the director of communication the Innocence Project, said that it is likely Bush would have stayed Jones’ execution had he been aware of the circumstances. In fact, he’d done so before for another death row inmate just months prior.
“[President Bush] had done so just a few months earlier on a case that he’d worked on and said at the time that he thought DNA testing should be done when it could help shed light on guilt or innocence,” said Cates.
