Student helps free man imprisoned in Dallas 27 years
Star-Telegram Staff Writer
DALLAS _ After receiving apologies from the court and the district attorney, a Dallas County man was set free Tuesday after spending more than 27 years behind bars for a crime he did not commit.
James Lee Woodard, 55, was set free on bond pending a final handling of his case by the court system. It will be up to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals in Austin to finally decide if Woodard’s 1981 murder conviction should be vacated.
"If we can learn anything from your tragic story, your years behind bars will not be in vain," said state District Judge Mark Stoltz during a brief hearing. "No words can express what a tragic story yours is."
Woodard, dressed in a shirt, tie and black sport coat, said the fact that he will be free was still sinking in. But he praised Dallas District Attorney Craig Watkins and the Innocence Project of Texas for working so hard over the past few months to investigate his case.
"I thank God for the existence of the Innocence Project," Woodard told the judge. He said without them, and the efforts of Watkins' office, "I’d be wasting away in prison."
If Woodard is cleared by the courts, he will be the longest serving inmate in the United States to be released as a result of DNA testing, according to the Innocence Project. He would be the 17th inmate to be cleared in Dallas County, more than any other county in the country.
His case was the first in Dallas County to be initiated and partially handled by a law school student.
Alexis Hoff, a student at Texas Wesleyan University School of Law, has been working his case since October.
"I knew he didn’t do it," Hoff said. “It just didn’t add up.”
Mistaken identity
Woodard was arrested on New Year's Day 1981 and charged with the murder of Beverly Jones, 18, a woman he had dated whose body was found in the Trinity River bottoms in south Dallas. She had been sexually assaulted and killed on or about Dec. 29, 1980, records show.
He immediately became a suspect after Jones' stepfather said Woodard had come to their home in the early morning of Dec. 29. Neighbors said they had heard the couple fighting.
But there was no evidence that Jones had been in Woodard's car or that the car had been in the muddy Trinity River bottoms.
Woodard had two felony convictions, one for burglary and one for unauthorized use of a vehicle.
From behind bars, Woodard maintained that he was innocent in letters to the detectives and to then-Dallas District Attorney Henry Wade. He gave the police a list of witnesses who confirmed his whereabouts at the time of the slaying.
And several days before Woodard went on trial, authorities learned of three other witnesses who saw Jones shortly before she died -- Ed Mosley, Theodore Blaylock and Eddie Woodard -- and who told investigators she had gotten into a car with several men at a 7-Eleven. Mosley and Blaylock couldn't identify the men or their car. It was the last time Jones was seen alive.
About three weeks after Jones' murder, Blaylock was arrested on a charge of sexually assaulting a woman whom he threatened to kill. Blaylock was in jail on that charge when James Woodard went on trial in Jones' slaying.
James Woodard's defense attorney wasn't told about the other witnesses until after his client received a life sentence in May 1981 for a conviction based largely on circumstantial evidence.
Blaylock, who was convicted on the sexual assault charge, was eventually killed in 1982 by a woman he was trying to rape. Eddie Woodard, a registered sex offender, can't be found, officials said.
Missing evidence
Soon after the Texas Legislature passed a law in 2001 allowing prison inmates to ask for post-conviction DNA testing, James Woodard filed such a request.
The Dallas County district attorney's office fought the request, and Woodard was told twice that the evidence was lost. But after another request, the lab said it had found the evidence in April 2007.
The case was among about 500 that Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins asked the Innocence Project of Texas to review starting in May. The project is a collection of student volunteer programs at Texas Wesleyan, Texas Tech School of Law, the University of Texas at Arlington, the University of North Texas and the University of St. Thomas in Houston.
The test results were returned to prosecutors in December.
Mike Ware, head of the conviction integrity unit in the Dallas County district attorney's office, said that both offices have interviewed several witnesses and that the stepfather has recanted his testimony from the trial.
An exciting day
Sitting in an interview room wearing a striped jail uniform and shackles, Woodard still couldn't believe that he may soon be a free man.
He marveled at the sound of a cellphone's ring tone. He relished the taste of a Diet Coke. He eagerly awaited the chicken dinner that investigators were bringing.
"I feel like I'm old Jed Clampett," Woodard joked.
Woodard's parents died while he was in prison, and he has no place to go after his release. But he said he doesn't feel any anger with the system that put him away for 27 years.
"I don't want to waste my time on negative energy," Woodard said. "I don't have any retaliatory or vindictive thoughts about it. I'm just glad it's over."
For Hoff, the case has been the highlight of a legal career that officially has not begun. She will graduate in May.
"I've been waiting for this day. Walking in today, it felt real for the first time," Hoff said.
maxbaker@star-telegram.com
