Yesterday, the Chronicle reported that Harris County District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal would honor a request from the Innocence Project to review 45 HPD crime lab cases that an independent investigator deemed troubling:
Harris County District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal said Tuesday that he has pledged to cooperate with lawyers who will study 18 cases involving serology tests and 27 involving DNA, all of which an independent investigator identified in January as having “major issues.”
Barry Scheck, a founder of the New York-based Innocence Project, and his counterparts in Texas contacted Rosenthal about their desire to review the cases after the January release of the latest report from special investigator Michael Bromwich.
[snip]
Rosenthal said he will not oppose efforts by the Innocence Project to have DNA testing conducted in questionable cases.
He added that he will give lawyers access to his files in the cases and provide a representative from his office to help go through them.
“I told him we’d be glad to do that,” Rosenthal said.
We wondered what the response of the Chronicle Editorial LiveJournalists would be to this news, since they (and Rick Casey) have unfairly smeared Rosenthal in the past. Surprisingly, the Editorial LiveJournalists had praise for Rosenthal today:
Harris County District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal is equally forthright in welcoming Scheck’s offer and pledging complete cooperation.
That doesn’t make up for past unfair treatment of Rosenthal (on the crime lab issue even!), but it’s a start. It also demonstrates that the Editorial LiveJournalists CAN write an editorial based on news that appeared the day before, and seemingly get it right. That isn’t always the case. It’s worth noting these baby steps.
