Texas DA Joins Judge, Defense in Condemning Flawed DNA Evidence in Death Row Case
José P. Garza, a district attorney in Texas, has joined lawyers for a man convicted of murder in requesting a new trial, for Areli Escobar, who was convicted of murder in 2011 based on DNA evidence from a now-disgraced police lab.
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José P. Garza, a district attorney in Texas, has joined lawyers for a man convicted of murder in requesting a new trial, reports for the New York Times. Areli Escobar was convicted of murder in 2011 based on DNA evidence from a now-disgraced police lab that made his trial, as a state judge described it, “fundamentally unfair.” Garza told the New York Times that while it’s the instinct of every DA to defend convictions, their “job is to see justice is done,” and he was convinced that the DNA evidence was flawed. Garza joined Escobar’s lawyers when his case made it to the Court of Criminal Appeals in requesting a new trial, but the appeals court held up the conviction in an unsigned opinion.
The appeals court somehow held up the conviction despite the unusual state of Escobar’s case: the trial judge, defense and prosecution all believe he deserved a new trial. On Oct. 28, the Supreme Court is expected to consider whether to take up Escobar’s appeal, and Garza has filed another brief in support. The DNA lab at the center of Escobar’s original trial was audited in 2016 and, after a number of issues were flagged by the Texas Forensic Science Commission, permanently shut down.
