Texas State Senator Rodney Ellis has introduced a bill that would require all Texas police departments to adhere to a formal written protocol on how to handle the questioning of eyewitnesses.

Wrongful convictions

KVUE's Mari Alvarez reports

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If passed, the legislation would require more training within Texas police training academies, like APD's in Southeast Austin. It may also help ensure the right people are put behind bars.

In a report released Wednesday by "The Justice Project," a non-profit group working to improve the fairness and accuracy of the criminal justice system, Texas leads the nation in wrongful convictions.

Project spokesperson Edwin Colfax, says there's a way Texas can improve its standing.

"What we need to do is modernize our criminal justice procedures to reflect what we understand are the vagaries of human memory," said Colfax.

The Justice Project is working with State Senator Ellis to pass legislation to standardize the way witnesses are questioned.

In a bill pre-filed by Ellis, all Texas law enforcement agencies would adopt written guidelines for conducting suspect line-ups, and document a witness' confidence when identifying a suspect.

"We do see a high level of professionalism, expertise, protocol, with that physical trace evidence. But what we're not seeing is that same standard applied to human types of evidence, which are more vulnerable if not more so," said Colfax.

The Justice Project reports only 12 percent of Texas law enforcement agencies have written policies that standardize suspect lineups and witness questioning -- a number that does not include the Austin Police Department.

However, Police Chief Art Acevedo supports the proposed legislation.

"I think standardization where every Texan is being policed with similar protocols is not a bad thing," said Acevedo.

He adds that APD does practice some of what the legislation suggests, and is working to formalize all witness questioning.

"Anytime that you're looking at really improving processes and minimizing the potential for an innocent person to be falsely identified as the suspect of a crime, it's a good thing," said Acevedo.

The Justice Project requested information from more than 1,000 Texas law enforcement agencies for this study, and 73 percent of those agencies responded.