Gregory Wallis was 29 years old when he was arrested and tried for a burglary and attempted sexual assault. He swore he didn’t do it, and after an inconclusive DNA test using old technology, a Texas jury convicted him and the judge gave him 50 years in prison. Now, 18 years later, with the benefit of technological advances in DNA matching, Wallis’s lawyers were able to demonstrate conclusively that the DNA samples taken from the crime scene were *not* from Wallis. And with that, they were able to persuade District Judge John Creuzot that Wallis didn’t do it. As he had claimed all along, Wallis was 100% factually innocent.

How do you repay a man who’s been innocently thrown into a hellhole for nearly 20 years because of a “mistake”? Most judges and prosecutors in exoneration cases spend more time and verbiage rationalizing their original decisions and covering their own butts than trying to comfort these people who have had their lives ripped away. Judge Creuzot (who was not the original sentencing judge) took another approach. He apologized.

“I don’t know how to apologize. I don’t know where to start, but I’ll start with me and ‘I’m sorry,’

Texas provides a fund for up to $250,000 to victims of wrongful conviction, and Wallis may be able to start there to rebuild his life. No one in their right mind would trade 20 years of their life for $250,000, and the reality is that Texas is probably going to wind up coughing up more after the dust settles. Until then, it’s a start.

Read the full story here.

RP

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 23rd, 2006 at 3:21 pm and is filed under News, DNA. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.