San Antonio Express-News editorials

Editorial: Innocence commission needed for Texas justice

State lawmakers should give serious consideration to creating an innocence commission when they convene in January ... State Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, twice has unsuccessfully attempted to get legislation on an innocence commission passed. The bills met with heavy political resistance and never made it out of committee ... Texans need a criminal justice system they can trust. Establishing a mechanism for reviewing questionable cases would be a worthwhile and important step.

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Editorial: Cantu Case Merits Independent Probe

Bexar County District Attorney Susan Reed made the right move when she opened an investigation into allegations that a San Antonio man may have been wrongfully executed… However, she now needs to step away from the probe into the Ruben Cantu case and allow an independent investigator to take over…Reed can erase questions about the objectivity of the probe by removing her office from the proceedings and asking an independent law enforcement agency to do it. It's the right thing to do. The public must be confident that the investigation is conducted without preconceived notions about the result.

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