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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."

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.

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."

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.

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.

"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."