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20 Apr 07
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Wrongly convicted of a 1982 gang rape, James Curtis Giles said he knew the justice system would eventually work. He didn't know it would take 25 years.
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He became the 13th man cleared by DNA testing in Dallas County since Texas passed a law in 2001 setting out a procedure for re-examining certain convictions.
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Six months later, police arrested James Curtis Giles, who lived 25 miles away in suburban Duncanville. Although he was 10 years older than the man described by the rape victim and had gold teeth, which were not in her description, the woman identified Giles in a photo lineup as one of the armed attackers.
Giles, a construction worker, was then on probation for attempted murder.
He also had an alibi, provided by the woman to whom he was married at the time. She testified he was home with her. But jurors discounted her account, convicted Giles, and sentenced him to 30 years.
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Terri Moore, first assistant district attorney, said evidence that identified another James Giles, who lived across the street from the victim, was given to police before James Curtis Giles' 1983 trial. But it was never disclosed to his defense lawyer, as required by law, Moore said.
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"Had people done their jobs thoroughly this would not have happened," said Moore, who was in the courtroom during the hearing along with newly installed District Attorney Craig Watkins. "The system looks bad because it can be bad."
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Dallas County investigators concluded during an investigation over the past several months that the other James Giles, who died in prison in 2000 while serving time for aggravated assault and robbery, was the third attacker. The victim has told investigators she was no longer certain of her original identification, a prosecutor said.
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Watkins, who has made wrongful convictions a priority in his three months in office, said his staff is reviewing 434 cases with the help of the Innocence Project. He said that list will be narrowed and a determination made about which ones will undergo DNA analysis.
Barry Scheck, the legal group's co-director, said "a few" more cases already have been identified in Dallas County that could result in overturned convictions. Nationwide, there have been nearly 200 DNA exonerations, he said.
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"These DNA exonerations are a learning moment," said Scheck.
He said the chief reason there have been more exonerations in Dallas than other jurisdictions is that evidence in the county has been well-preserved.
"I am by no means convinced things are worse in Dallas than they are in some other cities here in Texas or across the United States," he said. "The only difference between Dallas and Houston is we have the evidence here."
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