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[This edited version of the report has been prepared by Dr Robert N Moles]

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On 10 June 2008 Lufkin Daily News reported “Justice demands integrity unit".

Editorial: A Good Start

With a history of dubious justice in Texas, the decision by a state appeals court to create an integrity unit is welcome. Texas leads the nation in wrongful convictions overturned by DNA evidence. Dallas County's new district attorney has been leading an effort that has uncovered 17 wrongly convicted defendants there alone. Across the state, DNA evidence has been used to free people who spent years or decades behind bars due to glaring flaws in the state's justice system.

With this history of wrongful convictions, it is especially disturbing to contemplate the potential for the most irredeemable form of injustice — an innocent person's execution. By a large margin Texas leads the nation, and most of the world, in executions. Recently, Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Judge Barbara Hervey, whose court handles death penalty appeals as well as other criminal cases, announced the creation of a new integrity unit to examine and correct problems in the justice system.

Hervey, who will be on the Texas Criminal Justice Integrity Unit, said it represents "a call to action" for the sort of reform Texas has needed for years. According to the Associated Press, 33 Texas inmates have been exonerated using DNA testing since 2001. Last year, the state's highest criminal appeals court made national news when Presiding Judge Sharon Keller refused to keep the court open after its scheduled 5 p.m. closing time even after she was notified that attorneys were preparing an appeal for a death-row inmate, Michael Richard. Richard was put to death on schedule.

That the court could not be inconvenienced by a few extra minutes or hours when a life was at stake is the sort of outrage that demands reform. The new integrity unit will seek methods to collect and preserve evidence, improve crime labs and expand the pool of qualified lawyers — among other reforms. It's a good start.

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