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DNA Testing Casts Doubt on Guilt of Executed Texas Prisoner

HeadlineNov 12, 2010

A new DNA test has shown that a Texas prisoner executed ten years ago was convicted on insufficient evidence. According to the Innocence Project, a single hair used as the lone piece of physical evidence against Claude Jones did not actually belong to Jones and may have come from the murder victim. Jones was put to death on December 7, 2000, in the closing weeks of George W. Bush’s term as governor. The Innocence Project says Bush’s aides failed to inform him Jones was seeking genetic testing on the hair strand. Had the test been granted, the prosecution would not have had sufficient evidence to convict Jones under Texas law. The case was already thrown into doubt in 2003 when a key witness recanted his claim that Jones had confessed. In his five years in state office, Bush presided over the most executions of any U.S. governor in modern history.

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