Houston Crime Lab Gross Negligence (Incompetence)

I would never categorize what Houston's Crime Lab did to Ronnie Taylor as a mistake. I would consider their actions gross negligence and severe incompetence. Every newspaper or television report states that this was a mistake. An outside lab was able to detect the DNA on the sheet. Houston's Crime Lab should be shut down and all of their work should be contracted out until they are able to hire competent employees.
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Wrongly Convicted Man Needs Justice

A man who spent 12 years in prison for a rape that DNA evidence later proved he did not commit is expected to be released from prison Tuesday in Houston, attorneys said.

Ronald Taylor, 47, would be the third innocent man released from prison because of mistakes made by the Houston Police Department’s troubled crime lab.

Taylor is scheduled to appear in front of state District Judge Denise Collins with his lawyers from the Texas Innocence Network and the Innocence Project, organizations that seek to free the wrongfully convicted, as well as Harris County prosecutors, who are supporting Taylor’s release.

“We’re all in agreement ... that Ronnie Taylor is innocent and spent the last 14 years incarcerated while the real perpetrator went unapprehended,” said Nina Morrison, an Innocence Project staff attorney.

The man whose DNA matches that found on the victim’s bedsheet is already in prison for failing to register as a sex offender.

Taylor has remained in jail since Harris County District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal acknowledged his innocence last week. The delays are common in these cases while authorities arrange an inmate’s release, Morrison and Rosenthal said.

Even if the judge grants his release as expected Tuesday, Taylor will still have to return to the county jail to get processed out, Morrison said.

“The sheriff’s department has assured us they will move as quickly as possible,” Morrison said. Morrison didn’t expect it to take very long for Taylor to then be released.

Taylor was convicted in 1995 and sentenced to 60 years in prison for the 1993 rape of a woman in her home. Taylor was convicted on the victim’s identification, Morrison said, although the victim told authorities she caught only a glimpse of her attacker’s face.

At the trial, an analyst with the Houston police crime lab testified that she had tested the bed sheet and found no semen. This summer, a private lab in New Orleans retested the bed sheet and found semen that was matched to Roosevelt Carroll, currently in prison for failing to register as a sex offender. The Innocence Project paid for the retesting.