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Experiencing justice first-hand

A UH-based project investigates innocence claims from inmates

by Matt Cooper
The Daily Cougar

A group of UH students are doing more than just studying law -- they're helping release innocent inmates from Texas prisons and receiving credit hours in the process.

The Texas Innocence Network, which UH law professor David Dow started in 2000, is a student-driven organization that investigates inmates' claims of innocence. Students enrolled in the network's innocence investigation course join students from the University of St. Thomas, Lamar University and the University of Texas School of Journalism in the project.

The network's goal is providing experience and education for law students investigating innocence claims and giving a resource to prisoners incarcerated for crimes they did not commit. Research shows 6 percent of inmates are innocent, Dow said, which translates into thousands of people.

"If you only strike out 6 percent of the time in major league baseball, you're a great hitter," Dow said. "A 6 percent error rate in criminal justice means that, in Texas alone, there are a couple of thousand people in prison who didn't commit the crime that they were convicted of."

But finding the innocent is challenging in part because inmates are considered guilty until proved innocent, said UH law graduate and TIN staff attorney Jared Tyler. Further, the number of investigations the TIN can undertake is limited. Karen Hamilton, the program's deputy director, said the network received more than 3,500 requests in the past three years; about 430 of them resulted in investigations.

Hamilton said the students in the class are responsible for screening the requests and deciding what to investigate. The TIN does not provide legal counsel, but the students work with, or assist in locating, attorneys for inmates.

The network's first case was that of Max Soffar, a death-row inmate who confessed to the murder of four people in 1980. Hamilton said Soffar's mental disabilities and status as a "sometime police informant" led him to be coaxed into a false confession.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit recently ruled Soffar, who has been imprisoned for 11 years, must be released or stand trial again without the confession as evidence.

The TIN's Web site reported the project's investigators have logged more than 1,500 hours of research on the Soffar case and continue their involvement today.

The first prisoner released with the project's aid was James Byrd, sentenced to 30 years for a robbery he said he did not commit. Students investigating for the TIN uncovered a videotaped confession from the real robber. After Byrd and the robber passed polygraph tests, Byrd appealed and was released Dec. 24, 2002.

The TIN also investigated the case of Josiah Sutton, sentenced to 35 years for sexual assault based on testimony and evidence from the Houston Police Department's crime lab. New DNA testing prompted by problems in the HPD lab overturned the previous results.

"His case is the most notorious job of either bungling or corruption, depending on your view on the matter, of the Houston Police Department's DNA unit," Dow said.

Sutton was released on bond in March 2003, and a local judge recommended in April that the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals throw out his rape conviction. The TIN continues handling the case, and Dow said he expects everything to wrap up in a couple of weeks.

"I love my work," Hamilton said. "It doesn't look good on paper that we've only gotten three out of 3,500, but that's three people who are not going to spend the rest of their lives in prison or die for something that they did not do."

For more information on the TIN, visit the UH Law Center's Web site, www.law.uh.edu.
 

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