Beeker’s Words

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Jeff Carlton of the Associate Press wrote:

“Three times during his nearly 27 years in prison, Charles Chatman went before a parole board and refused to admit he was a rapist. His steadfastness was vindicated Thursday, when a judge released him because of new DNA evidence showing he indeed wasn’t. The release of Chatman, 47, added to Dallas County’s nationally unmatched number of wrongfully convicted inmates.”

Dallas County has a problem with convicting innocent people of crimes they did not commit. In fact of any county in the United States, Dallas County has the most cases overturned because of DNA evidence showing that the person convicted did not commit the crime. The state of Texas has the highest number of overturned cases in the United States. Despite having an alibi, Charles Chatman was sentenced to 99 years for aggravated assult. There was one black member on his jury.  DNA evidence proved that Charles Chatman was not guilty and he was released after serving 26 years.  What is going on with the state of Texas? Why has there not been a review of all cases in Dallas County? If there was such a rush to convict these people, where is the rush by Dallas County to review all cases in question. It sounds like there may be more innocent people sitting in jail wrongfully.

The Innocence Project of Texas assisted Mr. Chatman is overturning his conviction. The Innocence Project of Texas  is a group of projects from different Texas Universities that use student volunteer time to investigate claims of innocence by inmates in the prison system.