Dallas DNA Exonerations:
Lessons Learned
After taking office in January 2007,
Dallas County Criminal District Attorney Craig Watkins, established a
Conviction Integrity Unit to review old questionable convictions by using
modern scientific evidence. One of
the important lessons learned from using DNA evidence is that eyewitness
identification is not the best evidence to establish the guilt of a
defendant. This workshop will
review the wrongful convictions of 20 men in Dallas County. The presenters will examine each of
these cases and the lessons that were learned and can be used in the future for
preventing wrongful convictions and successfully identifying the real attacker.
Presented by
Terri Moore
Terri Moore is the First Assistant District Attorney for the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office. Prior to holding this position she has had extensive experience as a prosecutor in both state and federal court, having served in both the Office of the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Texas and the Tarrant County District Attorney’s Office. Ms. Moore is Board Certified by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization in Criminal Law. Throughout her career she has been active in activities supporting the legal profession, including serving on the Board of Directors of the Tarrant County Bar Association and being a Fellow of the Texas Bar Foundation. Terri has been recognized numerous times for her outstanding work. She was the recipient of the District Attorney’s award for Above and Beyond Service in 2007 as well as receiving the Extraordinary Women in Law Award from the Texas Lawyer Magazine in 2008. Ms. Moore received her undergraduate degree from Texas Christian University and her law degree from the South Texas College of Law.
Mike Ware
Since July 2007, Mr. Ware has been an
Assistant District Attorney with Dallas County as the Special Fields Bureau
Chief and as the head of the District Attorney's office Conviction Integrity
Unit. He graduated with honors
from the University of Texas with a degree in philosophy. He graduated from the University of
Houston Law School in 1983, where he was Research Editor for the Houston Law
Review and the Houston Law Review’ Texas Rules of Evidence Handbook. He was a law clerk for United States
District Judge David O. Belew, Jr. in Fort Worth, Texas from 1983-1984. In 1984, Mr. Ware began private
practice, primarily in criminal defense.
His practice included the representation of police officers in criminal,
civil, and administrative matters as well as whistle-blower claims. He became board certified in criminal
law in 1990. His criminal defense
practice involved pre-charge investigations, grand jury proceedings, trials,
direct appeals, and other post-conviction proceedings in both State and Federal
Courts throughout the United States.
Mr. Ware was a faculty member at the Criminal Trial Advocacy Institute
in Huntsville, Texas from 1993-1996, and has an AV rating from
Martindale-Hubbell. He was also
selected in 2001 by the Best Lawyers in America to be included in the Best
Lawyers Consumer Guide. From
2003-2008, Mr. Ware has been voted by his peers as a Texas Super Lawyer. In 2006 until May of 2007, Mr. Ware was
an adjunct professor at Texas Wesleyan Law School and was the supervising
attorney for the Wesleyan Innocence Project.
