'Evidence of things not seen' and other stories

Here are several items that haven't made it into individual blog posts this week but which deserve Grits readers attention:

Another plea for Max Soffar
At the Texas Tribune, Barry Scheck joined the chorus of voices calling for the governor to pardon Max Soffar before cancer ends his life. See earlier, similar calls from Michael Hall at Texas Monthly and Michael Berryhill here on Grits.

Dallas to test rape kit backlog
Dallas has received a grant to fund analysis of its backlog of rape kit testing.

Transgendered inmate sues over prison rape
In light of Gov. Perry's decision that Texas will not comply with the federal Prison Rape Elimination Act, a lawsuit by a transgendered TDCJ inmate alleging the state failed to protect her from sexual assault potentially takes on added import. To the extent Texas faces consequences for its decision to snub PREA, it will be federal lawsuits like this one that hold TDCJ accountable.

Austin cop fired for retaliating against paramour's husband
Reported the Austin Statesman, "Austin police fired a lieutenant Wednesday after an internal affairs investigation determined he made false reports to have the husband of a woman who was having an affair with him arrested."

'Evidence of things not seen'
Here's an interesting-looking academic article on tunnel vision in innocence cases and the failure to take into account bits of evidence that may not exclude a suspect but fail to align with witness statements or other evidence relied upon for prosecution. It includes a good analysis of the evidence from the Carlos de Luna case out of Corpus Christi in which the state focused on de Luna despite the greater weight of evidence pointing to another man, Carlos Hernandez. Seven pieces of evidence matched de Luna, while seventeen matched Hernandez including the seven the matched de Luna. Grits may have more to say about this after reading it more thoroughly, but I thought I'd pass the link along.