Chronicle checks in on George Rodriguez
Today's Chronicle carried an article on the case of George Rodriguez that, given past experience, set off warning bells.
Here's an excerpt:
"I'm still not free," Rodriguez says, squinting in the sun. "The DA considers that I'm not a free man. I'm still like a prisoner to him. I know I'm innocent — I just want to be free."
The 44-year-old was released from prison in October after retested evidence showed his 1987 conviction for kidnapping and rape may have been based on mistakes by the Houston Police Department's crime lab analysts. He was the second local man since March 2003 to be released from a Texas prison because of faulty work by the HPD crime lab.
Harris County District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal is not convinced Rodriguez is innocent. Rodriguez was released, he says, because the jury "got improper evidence."
"There is still a victim that says he did it," Rosenthal said.
Both sides agreed to set aside the conviction because of the flawed testimony about blood-typing evidence, but the state requested that the Court of Criminal Appeals grant a retrial.
That's the extent of the quote from Rosenthal. The rest of the lengthy story is focused on Rodriguez's everyday life, and paints Rodriguez as a victim of sorts. The story does not point out any new developments in the case.
I contacted Chuck Rosenthal to follow up on the story, and he pointed out that the Court of Criminal Appeals is still considering the case, and they hold the power over the outcome for the moment, not his office. He conceded that HPD did make a mistake with a certain type of blood test that was inappropriate, but pointed out that the rape victim still maintains that it was Rodriquez who raped her. A new trial may well hinge on whether she wants to pursue the matter again, after so many years.
One gets the sense from this article that a truly innocent man is being persecuted by a mean district attorney, which just isn't quite the case. Rosenthal has been emphatic that while he doesn't want an innocent man behind bars, he also doesn't want a guilty man roaming the streets. On several occasions when I've contacted him, he's gone into some detail on the matter. Readers can draw their own conclusions as to why his position gets such scant treatment in this particular Chronicle story.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/15/05 11:35 PM | Print |
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