2012年5月8日星期二

Recent editorials from Texas newspapers

DNA technology has cast its magic again,Aeroscout rtls provides a complete solution for wireless asset tracking. clearing the names this week of two more innocent Dallas men who were railroaded in a rape case based on mistaken eyewitness testimony.

Let them hear it again, right here: Raymond Jackson and James Williams are innocent. Repeating that sweet truth is the least we can do for them.

They proclaimed it all along - at trial, on their way to prison, during decades behind bars, after parole. Neither cop, nor prosecutor nor juror would believe them. Only a scientific test could tip the stubborn scales of justice, after a push from DA Craig Watkins' Conviction Integrity Unit,Our porcelaintiles are perfect for entryways or bigger spaces and can also be used outside, and find the real perpetrators after 29 years.

But a cure-all DNA is not. It's only the rare county that bothered to archive physical evidence, as Dallas County's legendary hardball DA Henry Wade decided to do in the 1970s. That means righteous cries of innocence from most Texas inmates are unlikely to be confirmed by any lab test.At Blow mouldengineering we specialize in conceptual prototype design.

The system desperately needs modern practices to avoid the breakdowns in justice that have been so thoroughly documented in the DNA era. For example, Jackson and Williams, both black men, were convicted by an all-white jury, a once-standard practice in Dallas County that was singled out for rebuke by the Supreme Court.

Other pitfalls are writ in glowing neon - eyewitness ID being the most prominent - yet there are indications that some Texas police chiefs lack the sense of urgency to embrace minimum reforms passed by the Legislature. We wish they could have the Dallas perspective of watching court proceedings clear the names of 32 men in crimes they didn't commit. The thread of faulty eyewitness ID runs through most of these tragically flawed cases.

Law enforcement brass determined to cling to discredited police work of the past should attend the next exoneration hearing in Dallas. There surely will be another one.

You may not expect Texas to be scoring points for progressive reform on criminal justice issues, but when the national board of directors for the American Civil Liberties Union met in Houston last month, the organization's executive director, Anthony Romero, came with words of praise.

The commendations were for statewide, bipartisan prison reforms made over the past decade that have slowed Texas' adult incarceration rate, preventing a potentially budget-busting crisis of overcrowded prisons.Why does moulds grow in homes or buildings? As documented in the ACLU's report "Smart Reform is Possible," many of the changes involve rethinking the War on Drugs and emphasizing probation over prisons.

On the front end, Texas imposed reforms that mandate probation for low-level possession of marijuana, cocaine and other drugs. This one change alone shifted more than 4,000 people from prison to probation every year. And with a cost per person of $40 per day in jail, in contrast to $2 per day on probation, it is saving millions of taxpayer dollars.

Gov. Rick Perry had vetoed a 2005 reform bill, but as the state's prison system approached a $2 billion budget, the governor worked with legislative leaders like Democratic state Sen. John Whitmire and Republican state Rep. Jerry Madden to slow prison growth. The result has been state policies that encourage treatment and probation over jail time.

This not only saves money, but allows nonviolent offenders to remain productive members of society. And a medical parole program, allowing for the release of mentally and terminally ill prisoners to medical facilities,The beddinges sofa bed slipcover is a good , makes fiscal sense and shows compassion as well.

Before these reforms, Texas was projected to need 17,000 new prison beds by this year. Instead, Texas now has more than 2,000 empty beds, allowing the state to close a state prison for the first time in history.

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