Wrongly Accused

In their post entitled "The Jury's Out," from Thursday, December 13, my colleague discussed a bill that they think should be passed regarding people being wrongly accused of crimes. They used the example of Michael Morton, who was wrongly accused of the murder of his wife and spent 25 years in prison before they found evidence that exonerated him. Now, the prosecutor from that case faces a court of inquiry for withholding evidence that would have prevented Michael from spending those 25 years in prison.
My colleague says that Senator Rodney Ellis introduces two bills that will be heard in the 2013 session. The first is Bill 89 that would "create a Texas Innocence Commission to examine post-conviction exoneration" that will be composed of judiciary people, people from both Houses, and lawyers. This has already passed in ten other states. The other is the "Automatic Disclosure Bill," which would create a statewide standard for disclosure in criminal cases.
I do agree with my colleague, although I noticed that they mentioned that Michael Morton is not the only one that this has happened to and I think they should have included another example. After researching a little myself, though, I found an article about a trio that had been charged with aggravated robbery and one was sentenced to 99 years in prison while the other two took plea deals and got probation. All three were exonerated recently but that does not erase it from their past.
Because of these examples, I do agree with my colleague that these bills should be passed so that innocent people don't have to be punished for things they didn't do.