Why not use this legislation as a vehicle to make sure such a thing doesn't happen again?
What would have prevented Mr. Waller's wrongful conviction? For starters, given what social science now can prove about the relative unreliability of eyewitness testimony, the lack of corroboration required for victim testimony in these cases invites horrific mistakes. Here's how I think the Code of Criminal Procedure should be amended on the House floor (the amendment is underlined, the rest is the existing code):
Art. 38.07. TESTIMONY IN CORROBORATION OF VICTIM OF SEXUAL OFFENSE. (a) A conviction under Chapter 21, Section 22.011, or Section 22.021, Penal Code, is supportable on the uncorroborated testimony of the victim of the sexual offense if it is established that the victim previously knew the defendant, and if the victim informed any person, other than the defendant, of the alleged offense within one year after the date on which the offense is alleged to have occurred.Call it the James Waller Amendment. Or James Giles, if you like. And if after all that's happened with more than a dozen recent exonerations someone from Dallas won't carry it, I'd think that's pretty disappointing.
(b) The requirement that the victim inform another person of an alleged offense does not apply if at the time of the alleged offense the victim was a person:
(1) 17 years of age or younger;
(2) 65 years of age or older; or
(3) 18 years of age or older who by reason of age or physical
or mental disease, defect, or injury was substantially unable to satisfy the person's need for food, shelter, medical care, or protection from harm.
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