Sanctions Urged for Withholdiing Evidence

A district attorney whose office leads the nation in wrongful convictions overturned by DNA testing says prosecutors who intentionally withhold evidence from the defense should face criminal charges or other harsh sanctions. I totally agree. Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins said he's considering a campaign to mandate disbarment of any prosecutor who doesn't reveal evidence that could help a defendant. The worst offenders might deserve prison time, he said. Since 2001, DNA tests have formally exonerated 31 people in Texas, 17 of them in Dallas County, both figures the highest in the U.S. The state has paid compensation in 45 wrongful conviction cases. At least 22 of them involved prosecutors withholding evidence from the defense, including 19 from the infamous drug case in the Panhandle town of Tulia that were based on the work of a discredited undercover investigator. The other three were in Dallas County.