ABC News Story About Innocence

ABC News had an interesting story on tonight's news about "innocence" in Dallas, TX. Because of the current Dallas County DA's skepticism about past convictions in the county, he is turning over several hundred case files to local law student members of the Innocence Project. They are looking at case files dating back to 1970 to look for possible wrongful convictions.

This story provides an interesting contrast to the attitudes of prosecutors who seem to be seeking convictions rather than justice (as discussed in the post/comments below). However, I think the procedure implemented is quite curious. I'm assuming there was some sort of basis for deciding which files were turned over to the law students and which convictions were so certain that review isn't necessary. Even so, it seems troubling that the DA is concerned about the local justice system but is depending on student volunteers to help remedy past mistakes. On the other hand, I suppose we law students do have plenty of time on our hands :)

A summary of the story is here: http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/LegalCenter/story?id=2885540&page=1, but I would suggest clicking the video link to get better details.