Overview
- Dallas County Commissioners on Jan. 21 approved a resolution clearing Walker’s name, a declaratory action that carries symbolic weight rather than legal vacatur.
- District Attorney John Creuzot said the modern office could not and would not have prosecuted Walker for the rape and murder of Venice Lorraine Parker.
- The reexamination detailed mass roundups of Black men, an all-white jury, a coerced confession, and improper conduct that included the trial DA taking the stand to assert guilt.
- The review was conducted with the Innocence Project and Northeastern University’s Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Project, and it found no DNA but ample evidence undermining the original case.
- At the hearing, Walker’s son and the victim’s son met and embraced, describing a measure of closure after the county’s acknowledgment of wrongful conviction and execution.