Dallas chief prosecutor Craig Watkins: "I think that any reasonable person would have to reach that conclusion that someone has been executed for a crime they didn't commit".

Watkins (pictured) is the first black district attorney in Texas. He is also known as the "criminal-loving" prosecutor and the "hug-a-thug" DA because he has taken the extraordinary step of using his office as the chief prosecutor in Dallas county to get prisoners out of jail and to rein in a culture of harsh sentences.

He has won the release of 14 men serving long prison terms – one was freed after 27 years and another given a pardon after he died in prison – and is investigating hundreds more after concluding that Dallas was plagued by miscarriages of justice due to error, incompetence, racism and a culture among previous prosecutors of pursing conviction rates instead of justice.

"Everybody thought: first African American, he's never been a prosecutor, only a defence attorney. His first official act is to review old cases. They were just thinking I was a prosecutor in sheep's clothing," said Watkins. "But there was a problem of credibility in the system. You've got to have integrity in the process. I was looking to ensure that victims get their day in court and that we get the right person because it's not justice if you don't."

Almost as soon as he took office Watkins established the US's first convictions integrity unit to review long-term sentences, some of which were identified by the Innocence Project, a group that investigates miscarriages of justice.

The miscarriages of justice also raise the politically sticky issue of the death penalty. Texas executes more people than any other state by far. Watkins says that the pattern of exonerations mean it is inevitable that an innocent person has been executed.

"I think that any reasonable person would have to reach that conclusion that someone has been executed for a crime they didn't commit. We'd have to conclude that based on what we've seen over the last three years," he said.

Click here to read this feature in full.

Source: The Guardian, April 20, 2010

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