James Lee Woodard finally walked out of Texas prison after 27 years. You may be thinking, ok big deal a man walked out of prison like any other man after his sentence is over. No, this is incorrect. James Lee Woodard was falsely accused of a rape and murder case that he had no part of. Woodard had been dating a young lady by the name of Beverly Ann Jones for seven months before the murder. Christmas time in 1980's when disaster happened in his life. Jones was found in the trinity river new years eve which he was shocked. While he was sitting at his house he received a knock at the door and it was the police. He was taking down to the station without knowing he was the one being convicted. The only reason Woodard was convicted was that Beverly Ann Jones step father told the police Woodard had come to the house looking for her which was the only thing they had on him but at this time was enough. He was placed in jail for just those few words. He was convicted and had no way out and no fair trial. Woodard believe he was going to get out in no time, maybe they were just doing this for a short period of time till they figured out that he was not the real murderer. Unfortunately, Woodard was wrong and was about to face 27 years in prison without a fair trail and was put there immediately.
Woodard was shocked and had no clue what was going on. He knew exactly where he was the night of the murder and two other young ladies knew where he was at too, at his other girlfriends house. One witness came forward and said that Woodard did not murder Jones because the night she was murder she was with three other males, which two of them had been convicted of rape before. With all this information they had which could of easily overturned Woodard case police department and Dallas's DA kept the information from the jury. While in prison Woodard wrote multiple letters to Henry Wade Dallas' DA which asked him to please investigate this case. He kept writing and writing but only to find out that no investigation would take place and the only response he would receive would be, "No further investigation is needed in this case" which was just a very harsh thing to say.
Woodard is 17Th man that has been exonerated from prison in Dallas and all 17 of these men where African-American. Dallas kept its DNA cases instead of throwing them away like other states did in these past years. Out of the 40 cases that have been reviewed 17 had been overturned, this makes it a 40 percent error ratio which is ridiculous because many more are still in the process of being investigated.
Listening to the news I always seem to here about a man that was accused 10, 20, 30 years ago and is finally free. Not necessarily in Texas but all around the US. Finally free because of DNA test, finally overruled by the jury, and many more reasons why these men have been freed. They are freed and the government believes that everything is ok now? He get nothing but maybe a pat on his back? This is just not justified. Woodard had his life taking away from him. Something that is never going to come back to him, something you cant buy, 27 years of his life gone. Some of the most important parts of his life, three decades of no fair trial is outrageous. What would he do now? Woodard had no clue what a cell phone was, a laptop computer, but more even more devastating had no family and kids. At the age of 55 you are certainly past your prime but hopefully James Lee Woodard is able to make the best out of it.
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/DN-exonerate_29met.ART.State.Edition2.4613068.html
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