PrintMay 6, 2008
60 Minutes plays 'Name that Party'
60 Minutes reported on the tragic injustice perpetrated in Dallas on James Woodard, who was recently proved innocent by DNA evidence for a crime for which he was convicted and imprisoned for 27 years.
"...last Tuesday, James Woodard went to court. In addition to the DNA, District Attorney Watkins' office discovered that the prosecutors, 27 years ago, failed to tell the defense and the jury that Woodard's girlfriend had been in the company of another man the night of her death, a man who was charged in another sexual assault"
According to the Dallas Morning News, this is the 17th conviction overturned that was prosecuted in the era of "the late Henry Wade, a Texas legend, who ran the district attorney's office from 1951 to 1987." Many details of Wade are reported including the fact that he is the "Wade" in Roe v. Wade, that he prosecuted Jack Ruby and that his office was notable for vigorously prosecuting blacks. 60 Minutes followed the Dallas Morning News' lead and omitted any reference to the fact noted parenthetically in this NYT article that Wade was, as typical of the Jim Crow South, a Democrat.
