Cleared by DNA for rape, man tries to reclaim his life

Submitted by anthony on Fri, 2008-05-16 17:39

Story here. Excerpt:

'James Woodard is slowly returning to life. He is starting over after spending 27 years behind bars. He was wrongly imprisoned and cleared by DNA.
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He may be free, but he doesn't have his life back yet -- or even proof of his life. He crisscrosses the city looking for the birth certificate. Watch Woodard make the rounds

He can't open a bank account with a prison-issued I.D. He can't get a state I.D. card without a birth certificate or Social Security card. It's not easy starting over. Woodard calls it an "adventure."

Woodard was convicted of raping and murdering his girlfriend in 1981 and sentenced to life in prison. He was released on April 29, the 17th Dallas County inmate to be exonerated by DNA testing.
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The Innocence Project is a national litigation and public policy organization, based in New York, dedicated to exonerating wrongfully convicted people through DNA testing. Its Texas branch has been instrumental in handling the Dallas cases.'

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Comments

The article didn't say anything about monetary compensation from the State of Texas for this wrongful conviction so I guess all he got were clothes he was wearing 27 years ago when he went through the prison system's inprocessing.

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Submitted by Luek on Sat, 2008-05-17 03:26

Breathtaking evil. He's poor, he's black, he's male. Therefore guilty on all counts. Case closed.

If that is the Texan version of justice, then let me say it stinks to high heaven. And the people of Texas who allow this wickedness to fester in their midst should hang their heads in shame if they do nothing to stop it. The prosecutors who deliberately withheld the evidence that could have cleared Mr Woodard should be rotting in jail, not him. I salute Mr Woodard for his stoicism and his determination to put his life back together. He is clearly a much greater man than the scumbags who tried to ruin him.

Sometimes we need to be reminded that evil can have two legs and walk among us.

Civilisation: man's greatest, and most unappreciated, gift to women

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Submitted by PaulP on Sun, 2008-05-18 06:19

if you or i, as men, had withheld evidence or given false witness in court we would be held accountable before this so called law.

so only womyn, law enforcement or "officers of the court" can lie, commit fraud, and withhold evidence with impunity.

the courts have putrefied and become some kind of club, members only.

notice the size and grandeur of their court/ clubhouses. maybe they should build golf courses next door so as be more recognizable.

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Submitted by daveinga on Sun, 2008-05-18 15:50