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20 Apr 07
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No other county in America has had more convictions invalidated since genetic testing freed the first of almost 200 convicted felons nationwide in 1989.
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Mr. Watkins has been critical of his predecessors for being more focused on obtaining convictions than ensuring the correct person was held responsible. Mr. Giles's would be the eighth faulty conviction from the tenure of District Attorney Henry Wade that has since been overturned.
Assessing Mr. Giles' case, he said, "It has to do with that previous Henry Wade mentality: convictions at all cost. That's probably 90 percent of it."
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Mr. Giles was a married, 27-year-old construction worker from Duncanville when he was arrested on charges of being one of three men who had savagely raped a pregnant, 18-year-old woman in her North Dallas apartment on Aug. 1, 1982.
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He said his conviction cost him more than the time behind bars. He learned his son had sickle cell anemia and could have died before his release. After being paroled in 1993, he was told he could not live at home, a situation that doomed his marriage.
He could only see his son with a chaperone. He was required to register as a sex offender, undergo sex therapy and seek permission to travel across county lines, even for family funerals.
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Lawyer Barry Scheck, a co-founder of the New York project, proclaimed that Mr. Giles' exoneration marked "a new day in Dallas" that demonstrated the commitment of criminal justice officials to right mistaken convictions of the past.
"These DNA exonerations are a learning event," Mr. Scheck said. "And we are so pleased the district attorney's office is looking for solutions."
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