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'Texas criminal justice system has major flaws': Estimating innocent people in prison

The title of this post is the headline to a Corpus Christi Caller Times editorial reacting to the slew of recent DNA exonerations in Texas as well as the Cameron Willingham case. The sentiments expressed, it seem to me, represent a growing consensus that Texas justice continues to suffer from serious problems.Despite the alarmist headline, though, it struck me that some readers of the editorial and other news coverage of innocence cases may be inclined to minimize the problem evidenced by 38 DNA exonerations and one falsely convicted man who was executed.To understand the scope of the actual innocence problem one must put these numbers in context. I've written frequently about efforts to estimate statistical rates of actual innocence in Texas, but let's try and get at the numbers another way...continue to full post

Full post as published by Grits for Breakfast on September 14, 2009 (boomark / email).