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Houston Gets a DA With a Sense of Fairness

Harris County, Texas recently elected its first female district attorney. As a former judge, she seems to understand of the importance of fair trials to criminal defendants.

She said her first priority will be a new policy to prevent tragedies like the wrongful conviction of Ricardo Rachell. He spent five years in prison for a sexual assault of a child that he didn’t commit. Attorneys neglected to test DNA evidence that was available at the time of his trial.

"It's going to be an open-file policy, so the defense attorney will be aware of all the evidence," Lykos said. "That’s only fair. If there is scientific evidence there to be tested, we’ll see and be sure that it will be tested."

Bravo. Open discovery should be the rule, not the exception. It seems that Lykos will be a giant step up from her predecessor.

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    Alberto Gonzales is an improvement (none / 0) (#1)
    by progrocks on Sun Jan 04, 2009 at 02:13:13 PM EST
    over Rosenthal.

    I'll believe it when i see it that see will make any real improvements, she just looks like any other texas republican

    let's hope (none / 0) (#2)
    by txpublicdefender on Sun Jan 04, 2009 at 04:05:33 PM EST
    I'll believe it when I see it.  As a judge in Harris County, she was rubber-stamping all the malfeasance for some time.  For the sake of Harris County justice, I hope she will be a vast improvement over the two previous administrations (not the caretaker one that has been in place since Rosenthal resigned), but I'm not holding my breath.

    ummmmmmmmmmm....... (none / 0) (#3)
    by cpinva on Mon Jan 05, 2009 at 06:35:17 AM EST
    i was kind of always under the impression that the defense was entitled to everything the prosecution had. is texas a completely different country, operating under a separate constitution?

    I had the impression that she was a protege (none / 0) (#4)
    by Baal on Mon Jan 05, 2009 at 08:27:07 AM EST
    of Rosenthal, but I was glad to see her response to this case.