Hillard Fields: Recantation overturns sex-offense conviction

Dallas' latest exoneration clears the name of Hilard Fields, who was exonerated yesterday of sex assault charges for which he spent five years in prison and will no longer be required to register as a sex offender. The victim has always maintained Fields' innocence, but her mother insisted Fields be prosecuted based on a letter she claimed to have read but which mysteriously went missing; her daughter denied its existence. Yesterday, though,, reports AP, "The Dallas County District Attorney's Office supported Fields' claim of innocence in the assault case after the mother of the alleged victim recanted her claim that the victim described the crime in a letter."

Boy, talk about a false allegation ruining your life! With the "victim" all the time adamantly claiming the "offense" never occurred. Given statutes of limitations, I doubt there's a remedy under criminal law for Mommy Dearest, but what a terrible thing to do, even if you fear your underage daughter wants to date a drug dealer! Said Craig Watkins, “Unfortunately for Mr. Fields, sometimes there are circumstances where a person truly is innocent, but because of ill feelings between the accused and other adults involved, the false allegation is allowed to escalate to the point of prosecution and that’s exactly what happened in this case.  This just shines the light on the fact that DNA is not the only type of evidence that can prove a wrongful conviction.”

And speaking of non-DNA exonerations, there have now been enough of them to say at least four types predominate: Bad or dated forensic science, as in the Todd Willingham and Ernest Willis arson cases; recantation cases, like this one; and proven allegations of Brady violations or other prosecutorial misconduct. Looking back to the turn of the century, you'd have to add lying undercover cops and drug informants, leading to dozens of false convictions in the Tulia, Hearne, and Dallas "fake drug" scandals. (Notably absent from the list: There are likely as many cases involving faulty eyewitness ID as in the DNA group, but without DNA courts defer to such witnesses.) I may be missing another category (suggest other examples in the comments), but those encompass most of the post-conviction, non-DNA exonerations I can think of from the recent past. Several of these cases, like Fields', resulted in plea deals (and thus "false confessions") to avoid longer prison sentences. In many cases (I can't speak to this one) defendants received ineffective assistance from their defense counsel.

I've heard attorneys working postconviction habeas writs on the ground say DNA cases are "easy," by comparison to most non-DNA cases, which is to say incredibly hard but at least often possible under Texas law. Non-DNA cases are even more of a slog, particularly after the prisoners first habeas writ (often pro se) has been rejected. Usually there's no one silver bullet, like the recantation in this case, and appellate courts defer heavily to juries when evaluating evidence. In that sense, Mr. Fields was fortunate (comparatively speaking, if you can use that term about a man who spent his adult life in prison or on the sex offender registry over a false conviction) not only that the witness recanted but that the prosecutor's office was willing to hear out, investigate and ultimately support his innocence claim. Most DA's offices would just fight such claims tooth and nail.

Fields is not eligible for compensation because of a concurrent drug conviction, but the ruling, if sustained by the Court of Criminal Appeals, will get Mr. Fields off the sex offender registry.

Congrats to Hillard Fields, Dallas DA Conviction Integrity Unit chief Mike Ware, who gets credit for this one heading out the door, and Fields' habeas attorney (and Innocence Project of Texas board chair) Gary Udashen.