Texas Bloody Texas, Part II

From the Texas Moratorium Network: Hair Evidence preserved by judge: Innocent man executed?

From the Texas Observer blog:

A San Jacinto County district judge has ruled that a crucial piece of evidence that might help determine whether Texas executed an innocent man almost seven years ago must be preserved while The Texas Observer, the Innocence Project, and other criminal justice groups pursue a lawsuit seeking to have it tested by an independent laboratory.

Judge Elizabeth Coker on Monday issued a temporary restraining order barring county officials from destroying evidence in the case of Claude Howard Jones, who was executed on December 7, 2000, for killing a liquor store owner. Coker scheduled a hearing for October 3 to consider allowing DNA testing of a hair found at the crime scene.

Jones’s conviction rested largely on a single, 1-inch strand of hair found on the liquor store counter. A state expert testified at trial that the hair closely resembled Jones’, but it was never subjected to DNA testing.

• We can’t even fight the right war!
• We can’t win the wrong war!
• We can’t figure out how to stop polluting our environment!
• We can’t elect competent leaders!
• We can’t make a fucking fax machine that works!

What makes us think that we can kill people and get it right?

That’s ignoring all the other arguments against state sponsored murder. It’s way past time to stop this barbaric practice.

Texas, Bloody Texas