Texas’s Junk Science Law Systematically Fails to Provide Relief to Innocent People Convicted Based on False Forensic Evidence

Dear Supporters,

I am thrilled to share with you Texas Defender Service’s latest report, An Unfulfilled Promise: Assessing the Efficacy of 11.073. The report is the first-ever comprehensive review of Texas’s decade-old junk science law. We found that Texas’s junk science law systematically fails to provide relief to innocent people convicted based on false forensic evidence.

No one should be forced to serve a prison sentence—or face the death penalty and be executed—because they were convicted based on unreliable forensic evidence. But the reality is that scores of innocent people are serving prison terms or facing execution simply because their juries trusted forensic evidence—from DNA to fingerprints to ballistics—that was later found to be untrustworthy.

More than a decade ago, the Texas Legislature took a revolutionary step forward for people who were wrongfully convicted based on flawed forensic evidence: It passed Texas Code of Criminal Procedure Article 11.073. The first statute of its kind in the United States, 11.073 created a pathway for people whose convictions were based on false forensic evidence to show those faults and ultimately secure their freedom. But the law has not yet lived up to its promise.

On the ten-year anniversary of 11.073 in September 2023, TDS systematically examined 74 cases filed under Article 11.073 to assess whether the statute is fulfilling its powerful initial vision: to grant relief to innocent people who are incarcerated on the basis of flawed scientific evidence. The answer is no.

We found that, due to both shortcomings in 11.073’s language and to problematic interpretations of the law by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, 11.073 is not working to provide relief to innocent people convicted based on false or unreliable forensic evidence:

• The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals largely restricts relief to cases involving new DNA evidence, even though most wrongful convictions are based on other kinds of flawed forensic evidence.
• No innocent person should be forced to remain incarcerated just because they can’t afford a lawyer; but of the people without counsel who sought relief under 11.073 in the last ten years, all lost but one—and he was out on parole.
• Procedural bars prevent large numbers of 11.073 applications from being considered on the merits, meaning that many innocent people never get their day in court. 
• Despite historically high rates of innocence among people sentenced to death, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has never granted 11.073 relief to a person sentenced to death.
  

In enacting 11.073, the Texas Legislature proved itself a nationwide leader on actual innocence. But this next legislative session, it needs to take action to deliver on 11.073’s truly groundbreaking vision. We will share more soon on how the Texas legislature can take action next session to improve 11.073 and protect the innocent.

In the meantime, please read the full report here and check out the article published in the Texas Tribune.

With genuine thanks,