After nearly eight months of deliberation, Judge Paul Murphy ruled on June 11 that Jones’ father Claude, executed in 2000 for the murder of a Point Blank, Texas, liquor-store owner, should have another day in court. Specifically, that the only physical evidence linking Jones to the crime — a one-inch piece of hair that somehow survived a destruction order years ago — had to be preserved, against the wishes of San Jacinto County, and transferred to an independent forensics laboratory for DNA testing that wasn’t available during the original trial.
Barry Scheck, the co-director of the Innocence Project, which sued (along with the Texas Observer magazine) to have the hair tested, said, “We undertook this litigation for two reasons: to find the truth and to vindicate the public’s right to know. We’re glad the judge agreed with us.” William Knull, the Houston lawyer who represented Scheck and the others, called it a “victory for the idea that the public has a right of access to the facts.”Read more: http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1996809,00.html?hpt=T2#ixzz0r5cHPqaC
Texas judge orders DNA test decade after execution