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Especially if you live in Texas, you know the Austin PD DNA lab has had SERIOUS problems in the past. This case concern an Areli Escobar, who went to death row based on the DNA’s lab reports.<\/p>\n
After Escobar was convicted in 2011, the police department’s DNA laboratory was closed following a state investigation that showed evidence of widespread errors and bias.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Escobar was convicted based on 1) His then-girlfriend thought she heard him having sex when she called him.\u00a0 2) He had a few blood spots on his clothes that day, which he said had happened in a bar fight.<\/p>\n
\nAt trial, with no eye-witnesses to the crime, prosecutors were heavily reliant on DNA evidence analyzed by the Austin Police Department\u2019s own laboratory as well as a private laboratory.<\/p>\n
The jury was told that samples taken from Escobar\u2019s clothing showed that Maldonado’s DNA \u201ccould not be excluded as a contributor.\u201d Jurors were also told that Escobar\u2019s DNA similarly could not be excluded as a contributor to DNA evidence found at the scene of the crime.<\/p>\n
A state judge in 2020 ruled that Escobar deserved a new trial because \u201cnewly available scientific evidence demonstrates that the DNA evidence relied upon for this conviction was scientifically unreliable,\u201d in part because there was evidence of \u201csuspect-driven bias.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Meaning that whatever the PD wanted for DNA results, they got.<\/p>\n
Prosecutors accepted that finding and notified the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, which was reviewing the case. But the appeals court in a January ruling nevertheless upheld Escobar\u2019s conviction, saying in part that his lawyers had not shown that the DNA evidence is his specific case was flawed.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Here’s where it gets messed up… even the prosecutors said the evidence was not certain, but the court upheld the death sentence. So they are basing his conviction and execution on what, his girlfriend thinking he was having sex with someone else?<\/p>\n
At the Supreme Court, Travis County District Attorney Jose Garza, representing the state, urged the justices to rule in Escobar\u2019s favor. Prosecutors \u201coffered flawed and misleading forensic evidence\u201d that was \u201cmaterial to the outcome of his case in violation of clearly established federal due process law,\u201d he wrote in court papers.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n