The Innocence Project of Texas is a non-profit that works to exonerate those who have been wrongfully convicted. Since 2006, it has helped free 35 people and they tell KPRC 2 News three more people will soon be added to that list.
KPRC 2′s Sofia Ojeda spoke with The Innocence Project of Texas Executive Director who says their work relies heavily on crucial evidence needed to prove innocence.
READ MORE: Missouri City PD under investigation for destroying evidence without court order
Anywhere from items with DNA evidence, blood evidence, nail clippings, items with fingerprints are all extremely important.
“It’s absolutely essential and often times that’s the biggest challenge in seeking to exonerate an innocent person, is finding the evidence that was originally collected as part of the crime scene for example,” said Mike Ware, Executive Director of The Innocence Project of Texas.
Ware says there are Texas laws in place that require the preservation of evidence that contain biological material for at least 40 years for the most violent crimes, including murder, assault. But that law is often times not complied with.
“If the evidence is not there, or we can’t find, or it’s been destroyed, then obviously it cannot be tested, in such a way that would be dispositive as to whether our client is guilty or innocent, and so the status quo would maintain, they would remain incarcerated because evidence couldn’t be found and couldn’t be tested,” added Ware.
When the Innocence Project of Texas heard about the Missouri City Police Department discarding evidence because of a water leak and the Fort Bend County District Attorney learning about it months later, he says that decision should not have been made without taking other measures first.
“We don’t know a lot of the details yet, but it seems at a minimum it’s very possible that a unilateral decision was made by members of the police department that they shouldn’t have made, that they shouldn’t have made without consulting with the district attorney’s office, that they shouldn’t have made without first seeking a court order, that they shouldn’t have made without notifying all the interested parties including the defendants, the defense lawyers, that this was their intent. The fact that it appears to be done under the cover of darkness if you will raises a whole lot of questions as to what the intent actually was. If it was just negligent or unavoidable accident certainly everyone should have been notified before the decisions was made to actually destroy this evidence,” says Ware.
KPRC 2 has learned about 100 cases were affected in Missouri City, some felony cases.
The Fort Bend County D.A. telling KPRC 2 they have discovered a couple of pending cases impacted by this.
No comment from the Missouri City Police Department but the D.A. says the department is cooperating with the investigation.
If you believe you or your family members’ case has been affected by the discarding of evidence or you have already been contacted and know evidence in your case has been thrown out, please let us know.
Message us on the Click2Houston Help Desk, help.click2houston.com.
