Legal Commentary

Houston Gets a DA With a Sense of Fairness

By TChris

Harris County, Texas recently elected its first female district attorney. As a former judge, she seems to understand of the importance of fair trials to criminal defendants.

She said her first priority will be a new policy to prevent tragedies like the wrongful conviction of Ricardo Rachell. He spent five years in prison for a sexual assault of a child that he didn’t commit. Attorneys neglected to test DNA evidence that was available at the time of his trial.

"It's going to be an open-file policy, so the defense attorney will be aware of all the evidence," Lykos said. "That’s only fair. If there is scientific evidence there to be tested, we’ll see and be sure that it will be tested."

Bravo. Open discovery should be the rule, not the exception. It seems that Lykos will be a giant step up from her predecessor.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on January 04, 2009 (boomark / email).