DALLAS, Texas (AP) -- A Dallas man who spent more than 27 years in prison for a murder he didn't commit was freed Tuesday, after being incarcerated longer than any other wrongfully convicted U.S. inmate cleared by DNA testing.
James Lee Woodard had been in prison for more than 27 years before DNA cleared him.
James Lee Woodard stepped out of the courtroom and raised his arms to a throng of photographers.
Supporters and other people gathered outside the court erupted in applause.
"No words can express what a tragic story yours is," state District Judge Mark Stoltz told Woodard at a brief hearing before his release.
Woodard, cleared of the 1980 murder of his girlfriend, became the 18th person in Dallas County to have his conviction cast aside. That's a figure unmatched by any county nationally, according to the Innocence Project, a New York-based legal center that specializes in overturning wrongful convictions.
"I thank God for the existence of the Innocence Project," Woodard, 55, told the court. "Without that, I wouldn't be here today. I would be wasting away in prison."
Overall, 31 people have been formally exonerated through DNA testing in Texas, also a national high. That does not include Woodard and at least three others whose exonerations will not become official until Gov. Rick Perry grants pardons or the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals formally accepts the ruling of lower courts that have already recommended exoneration.
Woodard was sentenced to life in prison in July 1981 for the murder of a 21-year-old Dallas woman found sexually assaulted and strangled near the banks of the Trinity River.
He was convicted primarily on the basis of testimony from two eyewitnesses, said Natalie Roetzel, the executive director of the Innocence Project of Texas. One has since recanted in an affidavit. As for the other, "we don't believe her testimony was accurate," Roetzel said.
Like nearly all the exonorees, Woodard has maintained his innocence throughout his time in prison. But after filing six writs with an appeals court, plus two requests for DNA testing, his pleas of innocence became so repetitive and routine that "the courthouse doors were eventually closed to him and he was labeled a writ abuser," Roetzel said.
"On the first day he was arrested, he told the world he was innocent ... and nobody listened," Jeff Blackburn, chief counsel for the Innocence Project of Texas, said during Tuesday's hearing.
Shem1 said
15:27 04/29 2008
dem fi gi di man a big house and a nice car and likkle money cuz dat a f*ckery weh dem do him
biggaman121 said
17:56 04/29 2008
he should take dem to court for wrongfull imprisonment
rrDesignZ said
18:26 04/29 2008
lol
mi woulda sue them
Crazypickney said
19:27 04/29 2008
wow! i dont think they can ever repay him
dappa75 said
20:57 04/29 2008
a little mony Shem, yu mean a few millions
Jefstar said
21:03 04/29 2008
u know how much money a man could make in 27 years....lemme see....me could make 1 million a years so thats 27 million in total that they woulda owe me...lol
Major Krazy said
21:19 04/29 2008
How you compensate someone for that????
I'd want enuff money to anything i wanted for the rest of my life after loosing 27yrs of it.
fyahhh said
00:17 04/30 2008
wow..... 27 yrs .... i was in for 1 week and i thought it was life... lol........ dey need to set him right for the rest of his life.......4 real.........
littlemisslinkz said
05:20 04/30 2008
27 years is along time thats messed up
Buddah said
08:06 04/30 2008
all of unnu talkin bout money...di first ting i lookin 4 once i reach a road is some pums....then di court case can foward
Scoota said
14:37 05/04 2008
dem need fi give di man a whole heap a millions now fi rebuild him life
Gangsta ras said
14:38 05/04 2008
atleast him free nuf more deh deh same way
mrs kalongi said
21:47 05/04 2008
yuh zeet scoota yow dat sad still my gosh but d good ting is dat him free sum innocent man still deh a jail now pon life
Gucci said
21:50 05/04 2008
27 yearssssss...... di man ah 55.... no amount of repayment will ever be enuff!..
DALLAS, Texas (AP) -- A Dallas man who spent more than 27 years in prison for a murder he didn't commit was freed Tuesday, after being incarcerated longer than any other wrongfully convicted U.S. inmate cleared by DNA testing.
James Lee Woodard had been in prison for more than 27 years before DNA cleared him.
James Lee Woodard stepped out of the courtroom and raised his arms to a throng of photographers.
Supporters and other people gathered outside the court erupted in applause.
"No words can express what a tragic story yours is," state District Judge Mark Stoltz told Woodard at a brief hearing before his release.
Woodard, cleared of the 1980 murder of his girlfriend, became the 18th person in Dallas County to have his conviction cast aside. That's a figure unmatched by any county nationally, according to the Innocence Project, a New York-based legal center that specializes in overturning wrongful convictions.
"I thank God for the existence of the Innocence Project," Woodard, 55, told the court. "Without that, I wouldn't be here today. I would be wasting away in prison."
Overall, 31 people have been formally exonerated through DNA testing in Texas, also a national high. That does not include Woodard and at least three others whose exonerations will not become official until Gov. Rick Perry grants pardons or the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals formally accepts the ruling of lower courts that have already recommended exoneration.
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Woodard was sentenced to life in prison in July 1981 for the murder of a 21-year-old Dallas woman found sexually assaulted and strangled near the banks of the Trinity River.
He was convicted primarily on the basis of testimony from two eyewitnesses, said Natalie Roetzel, the executive director of the Innocence Project of Texas. One has since recanted in an affidavit. As for the other, "we don't believe her testimony was accurate," Roetzel said.
Like nearly all the exonorees, Woodard has maintained his innocence throughout his time in prison. But after filing six writs with an appeals court, plus two requests for DNA testing, his pleas of innocence became so repetitive and routine that "the courthouse doors were eventually closed to him and he was labeled a writ abuser," Roetzel said.
"On the first day he was arrested, he told the world he was innocent ... and nobody listened," Jeff Blackburn, chief counsel for the Innocence Project of Texas, said during Tuesday's hearing.