Eideard

This judge wouldn’t allow a confession from the real killer

Two men are expected to be released after spending 12 years in prison for a murder they did not commit, the latest in a string of exonerations in Dallas County. Like most of the other wrongful convictions, these cases also hinged on faulty eyewitness identification.

Unlike most of the previous 20 Dallas County exonerations, however, these two were cleared without DNA evidence.

The most recent cases also are unusual because two student groups, the University of Texas at Arlington Innocence Network and the Actual Innocence Clinic at the University of Texas at Austin, championed the case for years before law enforcement officials re-examined the case.

Nothing unusual about that. Even for Texas. The history of American Justice is filled with prosecutors and judges who will admit to no mistakes or prejudice.

Two other men in custody, who were also originally investigated, are now suspects in the killing. Authorities say one of them gave a detailed confession to the crime after the case was reopened.

Claude Alvin Simmons Jr., 54, and Christopher Shun Scott, 39, were each sentenced to life in prison for the April 7, 1997, shooting death of Alfonso Aguilar during a home-invasion robbery. Their convictions were based primarily on the eyewitness testimony of Aguilar’s wife, Celia Escobedo, who was present in their Love Field area home when the killing occurred.

That identification was mistaken, said Mike Ware, head of the Dallas County District Attorney’s Conviction Integrity Unit.

“Procedures were used that we would now consider faulty,” he said, noting that when Escobedo went to the police department, “because of a series of mishaps she was taken past one of the individuals who ultimately was convicted in this case, who had been taken down for questioning.”

When Escobedo saw the man sitting in a room in handcuffs, she identified him as one of her husband’s assailants…

I guess I should be more positive about the apparent turnaround in police procedures in Dallas. Two things comes to mind: [1] How many more innocent people remain in jail and [2] given Texas politics, it’s entirely possible the good that has been done could be brought to a shuddering halt by any election.