IN A PERFECT world, or, indeed, in the world today’s oldest generation grew up in, we assumed that the purpose of our state’s criminal justice system was just what the name implies: a means to obtain justice for those accused of crimes.

We thought this meant that criminals would be punished and the innocent would go free.

Maybe we were naive in those days. But whenever the system started to fail, it’s broken now.

Consider the statistics: Between 1994 and the present, DNA evidence proved the innocence of 35 convicted Texas felons, the most of any state. Thirteen of these were from Dallas County, the most of any county in the nation.

The statistics come from the Innocence Project of Texas, part of a national network of nonprofit groups made up of lawyers, students and other volunteers dedicated to overturning wrongful convictions and securing freedom for men and women wrongfully imprisoned for serious crimes in Texas.

HOW HAS THE need for the Innocence Project come about? Mainly because of a political culture in which the public appears to be so afraid of crime that district attorneys must go after convictions at all cost — never mind if the evidence against the accused is flimsy.

The Feb. 14 edition of The Mirror carried a story about how District Judge Charlie Baird of Austin rectified one such miscarriage of justice. After a hearing he ruled on Feb. 6 that Timothy Cole, who died in prison in 1999, was not guilty of a 1985 rape a Lubbock jury had convicted him of. Serving a 25-year sentence, Cole died at age 39 from complications of asthma.

It was the first time in Texas that a deceased inmate was cleared of a charge in court and only the second in the nation. The verdict made national news and drew many criticisms of Texas justice.

COLE WAS CONVICTED on the basis of testimony from the victim, who picked him out of both photographic and live lineups. When another convict confessed and DNA established Cole’s innocence, the victim was dismayed, and joined Cole’s family in seeking exoneration from the court that convicted him.

The Lubbock court denied their request, whereupon the family and the Innocence Project turned to Judge Baird’s 299th District Court.

The Lubbock authorities have been accused of manipulating the lineups and withholding evidence that another man (the eventual confessor) had done the rape.

As an eyewitness to one violent crime and the victim of a robbery, I never want to see anyone convicted on the basis of eyewitness testimony alone. I know how flawed mine was, and I don’t think I am much different from any other eyewitness and/or victim.

THE INNOCENCE Project contends that one of the reforms needed is in the way police lineups are conducted for eyewitnesses.

In a news report posted on its website, the Innocence Project noted that the “fallout” of the Timothy Cole case is continuing. It said:

“Texas lawmakers this session are seeking to prevent misidentifications in the future. State Senator Rodney Ellis, the Innocence Project Board Chairman, has introduced an identification reform bill in the state senate.” It added that Cole’s family (along with a dozen exonerees) visited with lawmakers to support the legislation. Ellis has also introduced bills to improve compensation for exonerees and to create an innocence commission.

In a story on the case in its February edition, Texas Monthly magazine quoted Judge Baird ‘s closing remarks to Cole’s family, as follows:

“ ‘This went from aggravated sexual assault to robbery, and the judicial system robbed the Cole family of Tim’s love, and I’m sorry for that.’ He concluded that Cole had suffered the ‘greatest miscarriage of the justice system imaginable.’

“ ‘This system was designed by wise men and women to serve justice, and you’ve shown that this system is broken. We are fools if we don’t fix it. It is the duty of prosecutors not to convict but to seek justice, and somewhere out in Lubbock, that duty was lost in the tunnel vision of trying to convict Timothy Cole.’ ”

I DON’T BELIEVE that seeking justice, as Charlie Baird is doing today and did when he previously served on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, is being soft on crime.

Our Feb. 14 story also told about a parenting class Judge Baird has set up for probationers who, lacking father figures themselves, were demonstrating failures that possibly can be corrected. If so, it can keep them out of prison. If they mess up their probation will be revoked.

Innovations like this are praiseworthy, and should inspire others in the judicial system to put effort into rehabilitation as well as prosecution — not that all perpetrators can be rehabilitated, but everyone who is lifts a burden off of the rest of us.

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EXPANDING ON bird-watching notes from this space last week:

The Audobon Society reported last week that many species of migratory birds are no longer traveling as far south to winter as they once did. This provides new and powerful evidence that global warming is having a serious impact on natural systems, according to Audubon scientists.

The report said that analyses of citizen-gathered data from the past 40 years of Audubon’s Christmas Bird Count reveal that 58 percent of the 305 widespread species that winter on the continent shifted significantly north since 1966, some by hundreds of miles.

Purple finch, pine siskin, and boreal chickadee have retreated dramatically north into the Canadian forests, their ranges moving an estimated 433, 288, and 279 miles respectively over 40 years, the report said. This answers my question as to why my bird feeders no longer attract purple finches, striking little birds that look like sparrows dipped in raspberry juice.

Population shifts among individual species are common, fluctuate, and can have many causes, Audubon scientists point out, but they say the ongoing trend of movement by some 177 species — closely correlated to long-term winter temperature increases — reveals an undeniable link to the changing climate.

Movements across all species—including those not reflecting the 40-year trend—averaged approximately 35 miles during the period.

sgreene@tatertv.com Sarah Greene Archives