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	<title>CRIMINAL JURISDICTION &#187; DNA</title>
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	<link>http://www.johntfloyd.com/blog</link>
	<description>CRIMINAL JURISDICTION: Criminal Law Blog by Defense Lawyer John Floyd and Mr. Billy Sinclair</description>
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		<title>UNTESTED RAPE KIT CASES AN ONGOING PROBLEM</title>
		<link>http://www.johntfloyd.com/blog/2011/06/12/untested-rape-kit-cases-an-ongoing-problem/</link>
		<comments>http://www.johntfloyd.com/blog/2011/06/12/untested-rape-kit-cases-an-ongoing-problem/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 12 Jun 2011 16:15:48 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>johntfloyd</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Sexual Assault Crime Attorney]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[DNA]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[DNA exonerations]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[rape]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[sexual assault]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.johntfloyd.com/blog/?p=614</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Delay in Testing Delays Justice for Victims and Wrongly Accused

By: Houston Criminal Lawyer John Floyd and Paralegal Billy Sinclair

In a June 4, 2011 article titled “Justice Delayed in Rape Cases,” Houston Chronicle staff writer Anita Hassan reported that five years ago the Houston Police Department crime lab had more than 4,000 “rape kits” sitting untested in its “property room freezer.” Some of these cases date back to the 1990s, according to Hassan, and more of them are still sitting idle in neglect waiting to be tested. The crime lab has only tested “200 cases” over the last five years, citing “a lack of manpower” in getting the job done. ]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.johntfloyd.com/blog/2011/06/12/untested-rape-kit-cases-an-ongoing-problem/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>REQUESTS FOR DNA TESTING PRESENT ENORMOUS CHALLENGES</title>
		<link>http://www.johntfloyd.com/blog/2011/05/31/requests-for-dna-testing-present-enormous-challenges/</link>
		<comments>http://www.johntfloyd.com/blog/2011/05/31/requests-for-dna-testing-present-enormous-challenges/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 31 May 2011 19:23:00 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>johntfloyd</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Death Penalty Crimes Lawyer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[death penalty]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[DNA]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[DNA exoneration]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Murder]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.johntfloyd.com/blog/?p=609</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Right to Appointed Counsel Not Absolute: Courts Only Required to Appoint Counsel if Reasonable Grounds Exist for DNA Testing

By: Houston Criminal Lawyer John Floyd and Paralegal Billy Sinclair

Ruben Gutierrez was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death for the September 5, 1998 robbery/murder of 85-year-old Escolastica Harrison in Brownsville. The elderly woman owned a mobile home park and the trailer in which she lived doubled as an office. Gutierrez was a friend of Harrison’s nephew. He and the nephew, with other neighbors, frequently gathered behind the Harrison trailer to drink and socialize. Through this relationship Gutierrez got to know a lot about how Harrison conducted her business affairs; specifically, that she did not trust banks and kept all of her money in her trailer/office. Gutierrez was one of the few people who knew Harrison kept large sums of money in the trailer. ]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.johntfloyd.com/blog/2011/05/31/requests-for-dna-testing-present-enormous-challenges/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>THE TEXAS DEATH PENALTY SYSTEM BROKEN</title>
		<link>http://www.johntfloyd.com/blog/2010/12/11/the-texas-death-penalty-system-broken/</link>
		<comments>http://www.johntfloyd.com/blog/2010/12/11/the-texas-death-penalty-system-broken/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 11 Dec 2010 18:59:41 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>johntfloyd</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Death Penalty Crimes Lawyer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Homicide Crimes Lawyer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[death penalty]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[DNA]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[exonerations]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[judicial activism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[robbery]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[snitch testimony]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[wrongful convictions]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.johntfloyd.com/blog/?p=517</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Nationally Recognized Experts, Retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Cite Risk of Innocents Being Put to Death, State of Texas Replies “No Comment”

By: Houston Criminal Lawyer John Floyd and Paralegal Billy Sinclair

That question could reasonably be asked of any state that maintains the death penalty. Every system of punishment is cracked in one way or another. The fact that 138 condemned inmates in 26 death penalty states have been exonerated since 1973, and the fact that there have been 261 DNA exonerations in this country since 1989, and the fact that our law books are filled with reversals of criminal convictions and death sentences offers compelling evidence that our entire criminal justice system, and, in particular, our death penalty systems is if not broken, certainly flawed. Earlier this year Harris County Criminal District Court Judge Kevin Fine stirred considerable legal and political controversy when he declared from the bench that Texas’ death penalty procedures were unconstitutional. The backlash was so intense, from the state’s attorney general to its governor, that Judge Fine clarified his ruling the next day by saying he had not actually declared the death penalty process unconstitutional and ordered attorneys in the case to submit additional legal arguments detailing how the process was so flawed that it violated the “cruel and unusual punishment” provisions of the Eighth Amendment.]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.johntfloyd.com/blog/2010/12/11/the-texas-death-penalty-system-broken/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>3</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>ACTUAL INNOCENCE IN POST-CONVICTION PROCEEDINGS</title>
		<link>http://www.johntfloyd.com/blog/2010/09/28/actual-innocence-in-post-conviction-proceedings/</link>
		<comments>http://www.johntfloyd.com/blog/2010/09/28/actual-innocence-in-post-conviction-proceedings/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 28 Sep 2010 08:30:53 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>johntfloyd</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Houston Criminal Lawyer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[actual innocence]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[death penalty]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[DNA]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[DNA exonerations]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Habeas Corpus]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Wrongful Conviction]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.johntfloyd.com/blog/?p=488</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Timothy Cole Advisory Panel on Wrongful Convictions Recommends Expanded Post-Conviction DNA Testing, Habeas Corpus Based on Changing Science

By: Houston Criminal Lawyer John Floyd and Paralegal Billy Sinclair

U.S. District Court Judge William T. Moore, Jr., who presides in the Southern District of Georgia, recently observed in the death penalty case of Troy Davis (here and here) that only one state of the 35 states that have the death penalty does not have any post-conviction avenue for inmates to either secure or offer evidence of innocence. That lone state is Oklahoma. Altogether, 47 states and the District of Columbia have enacted statutes which provide varying degrees of access to remedies to establish innocence in a post-conviction setting. Massachusetts, Alaska, and Oklahoma are the only three hold-out states which have elected not to enact reform legislation in the critical area of establishing “actual innocence” despite the ever-increasing number of DNA exonerations.]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.johntfloyd.com/blog/2010/09/28/actual-innocence-in-post-conviction-proceedings/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>2</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>HOUSTON-HARRIS COUNTY NEEDS AN EMERGENCY DNA LAB</title>
		<link>http://www.johntfloyd.com/blog/2010/08/03/houston-harris-county-needs-an-emergency-dna-lab/</link>
		<comments>http://www.johntfloyd.com/blog/2010/08/03/houston-harris-county-needs-an-emergency-dna-lab/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 03 Aug 2010 15:51:27 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>johntfloyd</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Houston Criminal Lawyer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[DNA]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[DNA exonerations]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[DNA lab]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[familial searching]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[serial killers]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[serial rapist]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.johntfloyd.com/blog/?p=458</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Independent DNA Lab Necessary to Successfully Prosecute Dangerous Criminals and Prevent Wrongful Convictions

By: Houston Criminal Attorney John Floyd and Paralegal Billy Sinclair

Last month we posted a blog about the ever increasing need for an independent crime lab in Harris County. The Houston Chronicle  reported recently about Harris County District Attorney Pat Lykos’ call for an “emergency DNA lab.” The newspaper reported that the Houston Police Department’s (HPD) DNA lab, which has been plagued with mismanagement and scandals over the past several years, has 4,076 rape kits dating back to 1996 which have not been DNA tested and another 969 criminal cases scheduled for DNA testing.]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.johntfloyd.com/blog/2010/08/03/houston-harris-county-needs-an-emergency-dna-lab/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>MISTAKEN IDENTIFICATIONS SENT TWO INNOCENT MEN TO PRISON</title>
		<link>http://www.johntfloyd.com/blog/2010/08/01/mistaken-identifications-sent-two-innocent-men-to-prison/</link>
		<comments>http://www.johntfloyd.com/blog/2010/08/01/mistaken-identifications-sent-two-innocent-men-to-prison/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 01 Aug 2010 22:01:58 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>johntfloyd</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Houston Criminal Lawyer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[DNA]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[DNA exoneration]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[drugs]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Innocence Project]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[mistaken identification]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Murder]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.johntfloyd.com/blog/?p=456</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Suggestive Police Procedures and Mistaken Identification Resulted in Two More Wrongful Convictions and Incarcerations, One for 27 Years

By: Houston Criminal Attorney John Floyd and Paralegal Billy Sinclair

Our criminal justice system is flawed. Its imperfections can be found in the 255 DNA exonerations of innocent offenders and the 138 people released from death row since 1973 in this country. But, paradoxically, its perfection lies in its willingness and ability to correct the imperfections brought about by human mistake. According to the New York-based Innocence Project, mistaken identification is the “greatest cause for wrongful convictions,” playing a role in 75 percent of the nation’s DNA exonerations. Twice this year we have posted pieces dealing with the dangers, and, yes, tragedies caused by, the mistaken pointed finger (here and here). ]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.johntfloyd.com/blog/2010/08/01/mistaken-identifications-sent-two-innocent-men-to-prison/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>12</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>CAMERON TODD WILLINGHAM: IMPROPER OR WRONGFUL CONVICTION?</title>
		<link>http://www.johntfloyd.com/blog/2010/07/29/cameron-todd-willingham-improper-or-wrongful-conviction/</link>
		<comments>http://www.johntfloyd.com/blog/2010/07/29/cameron-todd-willingham-improper-or-wrongful-conviction/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 29 Jul 2010 18:09:28 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>johntfloyd</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Federal Defense Attorney]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[arson]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[DNA]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[DNA exonerations]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Innocence Project]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[junk science]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Murder]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Texas death penalty]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.johntfloyd.com/blog/?p=454</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Texas Forensic Science Commission Concludes Flawed Science Used In Trial That Led To Conviction and Execution

By: Houston Criminal Attorney John Floyd and Paralegal Billy Sinclair

It was December 1991 in Corsicana, Texas. Cameron Todd Willingham was alone in his residence with his three small children—Amber 2, and one-year-old twins, Karmon and Kameron. A fire broke out in the residence. Willingham managed to escape the fire. The three children did not, dying a horrible death trapped in the flames that quickly engulfed the residence. Willingham was immediately targeted as a suspect for arson murder. He was indicted on January 8, 1992. After turning down an opportunity to plead guilty for a life sentence, he was tried, convicted, and sentenced to death in August 1992. He was executed on February 17, 2004, angrily telling all those present that he was an innocent man. The political and media fallout from Willingham’s execution began before his remains were laid to rest. The case’s controversial history can be found on Billy Sinclair’s blog here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here. But essentially Willingham was convicted and executed because state officials involved in the case—and with a lot of help from the condemned inmate himself—successfully portrayed him as a “monster” throughout the trial and execution process. The basis for this portrait was:]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.johntfloyd.com/blog/2010/07/29/cameron-todd-willingham-improper-or-wrongful-conviction/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>3</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>TWO MORE DNA EXONERATIONS</title>
		<link>http://www.johntfloyd.com/blog/2010/05/18/two-more-dna-exonerations/</link>
		<comments>http://www.johntfloyd.com/blog/2010/05/18/two-more-dna-exonerations/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 18 May 2010 20:41:57 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>johntfloyd</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Houston Criminal Lawyer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[DNA]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[DNA exoneration]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[DNA exonerations]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[innocent people]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[mistaken identification]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Murder]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Wrongful Conviction]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.johntfloyd.com/blog/?p=420</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Criminal Defense Lawyers Must Never Give up, Never Lose Faith That Justice Will Ultimately Prevail

By: Houston Criminal Attorney John Floyd and Paralegal Billy Sinclair

There have been at least 254 DNA exonerations in this country, according to the Innocence Project of New York. Each new DNA exoneration cast a dark shadow over the nation’s criminal justice system, particularly its judicial system. These exonerations are not only a barometer for measuring the imperfections of our system of justice but the failings of its adversarial nature either through law enforcement misconduct or “tunnel vision,” prosecutorial zeal or ineffective defense representation. It is a shame each of us involved the justice system must endure, a constant reminder that we can all do better; that we must do better.]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.johntfloyd.com/blog/2010/05/18/two-more-dna-exonerations/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>7</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>THE DANGERS OF CRIMINAL IDENTIFICATIONS</title>
		<link>http://www.johntfloyd.com/blog/2010/04/29/the-dangers-of-criminal-identifications/</link>
		<comments>http://www.johntfloyd.com/blog/2010/04/29/the-dangers-of-criminal-identifications/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 29 Apr 2010 06:14:25 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>johntfloyd</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Houston Criminal Lawyer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[DNA]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[DNA exonerations]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[innocent people]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[mistaken identification]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Wrongful Conviction]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.johntfloyd.com/blog/?p=398</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Legislatively Mandated Innocence Commission to Review Claims of Wrongful Convictions and Bring Accountability for Wrongful Convictions Needed

By: Houston Criminal Attorney John Floyd and Paralegal Billy Sinclair

There have been 252 DNA exonerations in this country through April 2010. Seventy-five percent of those were the result of mistaken identification. KHOU television in Houston reported recently 85% of Texas’ DNA exonerations—the most in the nation—involved mistaken identification.]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.johntfloyd.com/blog/2010/04/29/the-dangers-of-criminal-identifications/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>17</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>MORE EVIDENCE OF BAD EVIDENCE &#8211; AGAIN</title>
		<link>http://www.johntfloyd.com/blog/2010/01/29/more-evidence-of-bad-evidence-again/</link>
		<comments>http://www.johntfloyd.com/blog/2010/01/29/more-evidence-of-bad-evidence-again/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 29 Jan 2010 21:51:56 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>johntfloyd</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Houston Criminal Lawyer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[DNA]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[fingerprinting]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[junk science]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[medical forensic experts]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[orensic evidence]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.johntfloyd.com/blog/?p=351</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Criminal Defense Attorneys Must Question Findings, Conclusions of Forensic Experts

By:  Houston Criminal Attorney John Floyd and Paralegal Billy Sinclair

We have posted a number of blogs about the “junk science” associated with forensic evidence—a science popularized by network television with drams like “CSI” and its spin-offs. It would indeed by an ideal world if all the evidence-gathering and analysis reflected in these TV programs reflected the real world of crime and criminal prosecutions. The reality is that while these shows may entertain their legion of loyal viewers,]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.johntfloyd.com/blog/2010/01/29/more-evidence-of-bad-evidence-again/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>3</slash:comments>
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