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Innocence bills resurrected, doomed as Senate deadline tolls

Wednesday was a big day on the innocence front. It began with the announcement of the 20th DNA exoneration in Dallas (yet another case where an eyewitness picked the wrong person out of a photo lineup), saw the Governor sign the state's compensation bill for falsely convicted inmates, and ended with a couple of innocence bills that died in the House coming back to life as amendments in the Texas Senate.Work on pending innocence legislation came literally down to the wire last night, with the Texas Senate considering Rep. McLendon's HB 498 less than an hour before their deadline cut off consideration of additional bills for the session at midnight. Sen. Rodney Ellis carried the bill in the capitol's eastern chamber.HB 498 was scaled back to a study whether an innocence commission should be created in order to mollify concerns from the Governor and others about creating a new bureaucracy...continue to full post

Full post as published by Grits for Breakfast on May 28, 2009 (boomark / email).