Have you ever read a column like this (innocent folks being abused by the system) by a Brownwood "Drive By Columnist/Reporter" ?

Name mix-up means jail time for an innocent man
By Bob Ray Sanders
Star-Telegram Staff Writer

Ask Adron Wilson the age-old Shakespearean question, "What's in a name?" and he is likely to give you a two-word answer: jail time.
Wilson, of Grand Prairie, is on probation after pleading guilty in 2003 to possession of a controlled substance. He was given deferred adjudication, which means the charge goes off his record if he successfully completes the eight years of probation.
An employee of a Dallas metal shop, the 28-year-old was feeling pretty good on his way to the probation office Oct. 23 even though he had called to say that he would be late.
Wilson, a former Navy hospital corpsman and certified emergency medical technician, had performed a good deed that afternoon.
"I was driving home from work and witnessed a bad accident that left the driver unable to speak, move or breathe normally," he wrote in his blog about the incident. "Because of my training in the Navy as a hospital corpsman I was ready and willing to do whatever I could to assist until the paramedics arrived. This caused me to be late to my monthly visit with my probation officer."
When he got to the probation office, he was told by his supervisor that it was too late, but that he should come back the next day. Wilson said he had a bad feeling and suspected that something was about to go wrong.
He was right.
When he arrived at the office Oct. 24, Wilson said he noticed a Fort Worth police officer out the corner of his eye while the probation officer asked him if he had ever been to Smith County. Then she told him that there was a warrant for his arrest for aggravated assault.
He knew there had to be a mistake, especially when he was told that the offense occurred on a Tuesday and that the victim was his sister.
"I was at work. I got proof," he told the woman and the officer.
He assumed he was being confused with someone who had a similar name; he was sure there was no one else whose name was spelled exactly like his.
He was told that the name on the warrant was indeed his.
Over his objections and insistence of his innocence, Wilson was taken to the Tarrant County Jail that afternoon.
Wilson found out after he got to jail, and after friends and relatives began working on his behalf, that the actual date of the offense was Oct. 7, a Saturday -- when he was at a soccer game with his 9-year-old son -- and that the suspect in the crime was already in jail.
Had anyone taken the time to read the police report of the incident, it would have been obvious that a mistake had been made.
The report identifies the suspect as Adrian (that's A-d-r-i-a-n) Wilson, not Adron, and it gives his date of birth as June 18, 1989, which would make him 17, not 28.
"Wilson, Adrian (brother) pulled a gun on [victim]," the report states. "[Suspect] left the scene."
The last line of the report notes: "Wanted person found in Smith County Jail. Charges added."
By the time Adron Wilson got to the Tarrant County Jail, Adrian Wilson was there, but Adron couldn't get anyone to listen to his story.
Adron made a nuisance of himself that night and the next two days, constantly pushing the call button to get someone to check his story.
In the meantime, his family and relatives were calling the Police Department and the district attorney's office, but couldn't get anyone to listen to them either, they said.
The next morning, Adron was transferred to the county's Green Bay Facility, and luckily encountered a female jail officer working the third shift who did check the records, and it was she who discovered that Adrian Wilson was already in the Tarrant County Jail.
She advised Adron to speak with a sergeant or corporal during the first shift that day.
"Wednesday I stopped every officer I saw," Adron said. "I kept getting ignored."
He rang the emergency medical bell so much, he said, that the jail officers got upset with him.
"I wasn't thinking logically anymore," he told me. "I was upset. I started yelling."
Jail officials finally verified the error Thursday and Adron's family was told that he was being released. Adron got word around noon that day that the paperwork was being prepared.
After several hours passed and Adron was still in jail, relatives called to inquire about the delay, only to learn that the system was about to add insult to injury. Officials were processing the release for Adrian Wilson.
Adron did get out late that afternoon, just in time to watch his son play in a make-up soccer game.
In his blog, Adron says he is angry and confused, and wonders whether he can trust the police anymore or teach his son to
do so.
"I am so mad and hurt because I didn't want this, no one does," he wrote. "I'll admit it's not as extreme as some of the people executed or serving multiple years in prison for crimes they did not commit. Well, the fact is it's not different in terms that [the authorities] are wrong and something must be done."
On Sunday, I'll talk more about the egregious mistakes of the system and a man who served 25 years for something he didn't do.

Bob Ray Sanders' column appears Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays. 817-390-7775 bobray@star-telegram.com

source: http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/columnists/bob_ray_sanders/15900466.htm
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Wrongly-convicted man tastes freedom
06:46 PM CST on Tuesday, October 31, 2006
Associated Press

DALLAS — A man convicted of rape 25 years ago walked out of a courtroom a free man Tuesday after a judge ruled he likely wouldn't have been found guilty if DNA testing had been available.

Specialized DNA testing performed this year proved Larry Fuller, 57, was not the assailant who raped a Dallas woman in her home. By then, Fuller had spent about two decades in prison for the crime.

"My faith was tested and I won," he said, trembling slightly as he left the courthouse carrying two worn paperback Bibles.

Moments earlier, state District Judge Lana McDaniel issued the ruling clearing Fuller and his supporters broke out in applause. McDaniel apologized to Fuller, telling him she felt sick to her stomach over all the time he spent in prison for a crime he didn't commit.

"I just pray ... I do hope that God blesses your life," McDaniel said.

Assistant District Attorney John Rolater, who was not involved in the original case, also apologized to Fuller in court on behalf of the prosecutors' office.

"Thank you," Fuller responded. "Apology accepted."

Minutes later, Fuller walked out of the courtroom with his brother, sister-in-law, and his attorneys in tow.

In 1981, Fuller was sentenced to 50 years after jurors convicted him of aggravated rape, finding that he broke into a 37-year-old woman's apartment and raped her, using a butcher knife to cut the victim's thumb, neck and back as she struggled.

The victim looked at two photo lineups, both of which included Fuller. She picked him in the second one, even though Fuller was bearded in the picture and she said her attacker had no facial hair.

At the time Fuller was a 32-year-old Vietnam veteran who had received the Air Medal for taking care of his crew. He was pursing a career in art and had worked as a driver and warehouse employee.

Although Fuller had no convictions for sexual assault, he had pleaded guilty to robbing a convenience store in 1975 and been sentenced to three years in prison. Fuller served 18 years on the rape conviction. He was released in 1999 but sent back last year for a parole violation.

All the while, Fuller professed his innocence in the rape case and tried to prove it through DNA. This year, the Dallas County District Attorney's Office agreed to allow the additional testing.

Fuller's subsequent exoneration makes him the 10th Dallas County man in five years cleared by DNA testing. More than 20 men have been exonerated in Texas by DNA testing, according to the Innocence Project.

Co-director Barry Scheck said the figures point to the need for Texas to set up a panel that examine why so many convictions have been overturned by DNA evidence.

However, Rolater said the figures for Dallas County aren't abnormal since the District Attorney's Office prosecutes some 20,000 felony cases each year.

Prosecutors haven't seen systemic problems, but their practices have evolved over the years. The office doesn't oppose DNA testing in as many cases as before. It currently has eight cases undergoing post conviction DNA testing, Rolater said.

"It is hard to go back and change the way cases were investigated and prosecuted," he said

Nationwide, 185 people have been cleared through DNA after their convictions, according to the Innocence Project.

However, 90 percent of cases have no DNA evidence to test. In most cases, testimony from mistaken eyewitness identification led to the wrongful conviction, the group said.

source: http://www.wfaa.com/sharedcontent/dws/wfaa/latestnews/stories/wfaa061031_lj_dna.3f0eb65.html