DNA test exonerates Dallas man jailed for 25 years
The article I chose was about a 56 year old man who spent 25 years locked up in a Dallas prison for rape and after a post-conviction DNA test was given it proved his innocence. Johnnie Lindsey had wrote the Dallas County courts asking for DNA testing to prove that he was innocent. After 6 letters had been turned down he finally had got the news that a DNA test would be given. DNA testing showed Lindsey was innocent of the 1981 sexual assault and burglary. Additional DNA testing linked the crimes to a Sidney Goodyear, who died in prison in 1998. Lindsey became the 20th man in Dallas County proven innocent by DNA testing since 2001. Those 20 cases are a national high for one county.
After reading this article and ones related to it I have the question of why would it take so many years to complete a DNA test on a subject that is being punished for a crime that in the first place should of already been given a DNA test. The article never said whether or not a DNA test was provided when he was sentenced 25 years ago. To me if your county has the highest rate of wrongful conviction cases in America I don not think I would of ignored Lindsey’s letters for as long as they were ignored.
This article should have given their readers more background on the case from 25 years ago. What other evidence did they have to pin it on him if a DNA test was not given? The judge in this case Judge Larry Mitchell gave an apology to Lindsey saying how sorry he was that this happened to him, but they took away his freedom and his whole life for 25 years, those are 25 years he will never get back. Actions should have been taken a long time ago. It sounds like to me they convicted him on slim to none evidence and threw him away into the prison system to get lost within the crowd.
Source
This article was taken of the internet but it also was published in the Dallas News also called the Dallas Morning News. Date it was...