A Shameful Legacy

Wade and his cronies share a shameful legacy.













Wade, as a symbolic force and active agent, straddles both the disciplining of women’s bodies through law and medicine and the brutalization of a criminalized underclass, largely delineated along racial lines, through the prison industrial complex. Wade’s surname, depersonalized, is now a metonym for patriarchy, but the association ought to extend to mass incarceration and white supremacy as well.




—From the Exhibit “Cottage Industry” by Mary Walling Blackburn and Rafael Kelman, The Booklyn Art Gallery, Brooklyn, New York (November 13–December 29, 2015).
A tantalizing glimpse at Henry Wade has found its way into an exhibit in a Brooklyn art gallery. But who was he? We know that “Jane Roe” in the Roe v. Wade class-action lawsuit filed by attorneys Sarah Weddington and Linda Coffee was Norma McCorvey, a young, down-and-out Dallas waitress who couldn’t get an abortion and in fact never got an abortion because the lawsuit dragged on until terminating the pregnancy was no longer a possibility. She later became an anti-abortion activist, and in 2003 she sued the Dallas district attorney in a futile attempt to overturn Roe. v. Wade, claiming that she didn’t understand what an abortion was when she signed on as a plaintiff in 1969.
Dallas County District Attorney Henry Wade was an accidental defendant. If Coffee and Weddington had found a client in El Paso or Houston, Henry Wade wouldn’t be “Wade.” He didn’t even argue the Supreme Court case that made him a symbol of “the disciplining of women’s bodies through law.” The landmark lawsuit wrote him into the wrong historical narrative.




Wade made his name as a prosecutor. He holds the record for the highest felony conviction rate (92 percent) in a state that perennially ranks in the top five in percentage of residents incarcerated.
He was better than 92 percent. Early in his career, when he was prosecuting cases himself, he had a 100 percent conviction rate.


In capital cases, he asked for death sentences 30 times and sent 29 men to death row.


In 1969 he wrote a prosecutors’ manual that ensured that blacks in Dallas County were almost always excluded from criminal juries. The manual was cited in a 2004 Supreme Court decision that a granted a retrial to African-American defendant Thomas Miller-El, because one of Wade’s assistant district attorneys had excluded 10 of 11 African-Americans in the jury pool from the jury that convicted Miller-El of capital murder and sentenced him to death. 


In 2006, Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins, the first African-American ever elected to the office, began a systematic examination of Wade’s convictions. By 2008, Watkins’s investigation overturned the convictions of 19 men sent to prison by Wade’s office, three for murder and 16 for either rape or robbery. Ten of the men released are black.
After Watkins’s defeat by a Republican challenger in 2014, the Innocence Project of Texas continues to investigate false convictions. Five of nine men cleared by the Innocence Project were African-Americans wrongly convicted by Wade’s staff; one 2 was serving a life sentence for murder, three were serving life 2 sentences for sexual assault, the fourth had been sentenced to 99 years for sexual assault.


With 24 DNA exonerations, Dallas County has far surpassed all other counties in Texas in overturned convictions. The current Dallas District Attorney, Susan Hawk, a part of a concerted b Republican campaign to oust Watkins, has not pursued her predecessor’s examination of questionable convictions. 


Wade died in 2001. The Henry Wade Juvenile Justice Center memorializes him in the city where he made his name putting men behind bars.




Sources: The Sentencing Project; The Texas Innocence Project; The Dallas Morning News; McCorvey v. Hill (U.S. Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit, September, 2004.)

Vinny wrote:DNA Evidence Clears Innocent Prisoner After 27 Years.


https://jonsjailjournal.blogspot.com/2009/10/dna-evidence-clears-innocent-prisoner.html

Thank you Vinnie. Good find.

greg parker wrote:

Vinny wrote:DNA Evidence Clears Innocent Prisoner After 27 Years.


https://jonsjailjournal.blogspot.com/2009/10/dna-evidence-clears-innocent-prisoner.html

Thank you Vinnie. Good find.

Even though this again zeros in on Wade, we can't lose sight of the fact that it wasn't Wade who arrested, charged and built cases against these people - or at least not in most cases.  It was the police.

greg parker wrote:

greg parker wrote:

Vinny wrote:DNA Evidence Clears Innocent Prisoner After 27 Years.


https://jonsjailjournal.blogspot.com/2009/10/dna-evidence-clears-innocent-prisoner.html

Thank you Vinnie. Good find.

Even though this again zeros in on Wade, we can't lose sight of the fact that it wasn't Wade who arrested, charged and built cases against these people - or at least not in most cases.  It was the police.

Point taken Greg.
His legacy is a disgrace though, but the whole system was broken. Probably in some ways still is. The police troops in the field (not all) were happy to plant, and manufacture evidence at will. Condoned by their masters. They in turn were more than willing to get their man at any cost. The hierarchy were shameful in their approach to suspects.

The whole system was corrupt.....The police would trump up charges manipulate, manufacture, or plant evidence to charge the suspect and then Wade would do the rest. Knowing full well they were railroading innocent people.

Hell they sent an innocent to the electric chair, and as near as I can tell, they knew he was not guilty. Shame on all of them

Mick Purdy wrote:

greg parker wrote:

greg parker wrote:

Vinny wrote:DNA Evidence Clears Innocent Prisoner After 27 Years.


https://jonsjailjournal.blogspot.com/2009/10/dna-evidence-clears-innocent-prisoner.html

Thank you Vinnie. Good find.

Even though this again zeros in on Wade, we can't lose sight of the fact that it wasn't Wade who arrested, charged and built cases against these people - or at least not in most cases.  It was the police.

Point taken Greg.
His legacy is a disgrace though, but the whole system was broken. Probably in some ways still is. The police troops in the field (not all) were happy to plant, and manufacture evidence at will. Condoned by their masters. They in turn were more than willing to get their man at any cost. The hierarchy were shameful in their approach to suspects.

The whole system was corrupt.....The police would trump up charges manipulate, manufacture, or plant evidence to charge the suspect and then Wade would do the rest. Knowing full well they were railroading innocent people.

Hell they sent an innocent to the electric chair, and as near as I can tell, they knew he was not guilty. Shame on all of them

Yep, and I think it's telling that Wade was ex-FBI and that Ruthie's divorce lawyer was an ex Wade assistant DA whose husband was a MI application "reject" who happened to set up his divorce practice in the same building as MI and who happened to be one of those suggesting that the DCLU go and check on Oswald, with the DCLU also having Prof. Chuck Webster as a member and with Chuck being pals with FBI infiltrator/informant Bill Lowery - who happened to "handle" "com-symp" TSBD employee Joe Molina until outing himself as a CPUSA infiltrator/informant for the FBI just before fellow DCLU member Ruthie helped get Oz a job in the same building as Molina.

If you can follow all those dots!!!

Source:  http://ece.dallasnews.com/news/jfk50/explore/20130629-how-henry-wade-dallas-law-and-order-da-ran-afoul-of-j.-edgar-hoover.ece
 
J. Edgar Hoover and Henry Wade had admired each other for more than 20 years by the time President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963.


Both men looked like human bulldogs. They each carefully crafted their images as tough, no-nonsense crime fighters — Hoover as the legendary FBI director, Wade as Dallas County’s hard-charging district attorney.
It took Lee Harvey Oswald to drive a wedge between them.


In the weeks after the assassination, Hoover repeatedly denied rumors that Oswald had been a paid FBI informant. Hoover became enraged when he heard that Wade told the Warren Commission that if the allegation were true, Hoover and other FBI higher-ups in Washington might not even be aware of Oswald’s status.


Wade knew a thing or two about informants. During World War II, he’d been an undercover FBI agent in Quito, Ecuador. And he told the Warren Commission that his FBI superiors had required little if any documentation on how he handled informants, or how much he paid them.
Records on Wade


The Dallas Morning News obtained 350 pages of FBI records on Wade under the federal Freedom of Information Act. He served as Dallas district attorney from 1951 to 1987. But the records date back to his successful application to join the FBI in 1939, the year after earning his law degree from the University of Texas. The files document how he ran afoul of Hoover in the chaotic weeks after the JFK assassination.


Newspapers around the world were filled with Dallas-datelined stories about JFK’s murder and the spectacular sequel two days later: A nightclub operator named Jack Ruby shot and killed Oswald in the basement of the Dallas police headquarters.
Wade was at the center of events, working closely with investigators as they prepared to put Ruby on trial for Oswald’s murder. He knew a lot about Oswald, and news-hungry Americans wanted details.


As January 1964 wore on, pressure mounted on the Warren Commission to track down information about Oswald’s alleged FBI connections. But J. Lee Rankin, the commission’s general counsel, and U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren, the commission’s chairman, did not want to be seen as conducting an investigation of Hoover’s FBI.
So they tried to move quietly.


Records show that Rankin and Warren summoned Wade to Washington to get an update on the assassination investigation in Dallas. Their meeting Jan. 24 was informal, and no notes were taken.
Wade, repeating the assertions from the Houston Post story three weeks earlier, told Warren and Rankin that a reporter claimed Oswald was a paid informant making $200 a month, under the bureau ID No. S172.


But that wasn’t what made Hoover angry.
Wade went on to tell Rankin and Warren that when he was an undercover FBI agent in South America during World War II, he didn’t have to keep receipts or identify his paid informants.
The implication was clear: FBI headquarters — meaning J. Edgar Hoover — might not even know if Oswald had been a bureau informant, because field agents might not have shared that information with their Washington superiors.


Hoover was livid. He reacted by ordering an internal investigation of Wade’s wartime service in the FBI.
“I told Mr. Rankin that I most certainly could state that at least for the last 20 years, I know Mr. Wade’s statements would not hold water,” Hoover wrote to his subordinates. “I would like to now have a further analysis of exactly how Wade operated and how monies were paid to him as well as a listing of the funds supplied to him and what disposition he made of them.”
Wartime service

ROKCERS,

if anybody has any info, links or otherwise concerning Wade / Fritz and their successful convictions during the period 1952 -1963 could you share on this thread many thanks. Their first big case together was State v Tommy Lee Walker, Arrested for first degree murder, within 3 months Wade had convinced a jury to send this man to the electric chair. Will Fritz played a huge part in what information was given to the DA's office. There are serious doubts about his guilt in this case. No less than 15 alibi witnesses were ignored. Any knowledge of any other cases for that time up until '63 would be much appreciated......

Mick Purdy wrote:

greg parker wrote:

greg parker wrote:

Vinny wrote:DNA Evidence Clears Innocent Prisoner After 27 Years.


https://jonsjailjournal.blogspot.com/2009/10/dna-evidence-clears-innocent-prisoner.html

Thank you Vinnie. Good find.

Even though this again zeros in on Wade, we can't lose sight of the fact that it wasn't Wade who arrested, charged and built cases against these people - or at least not in most cases.  It was the police.

Point taken Greg.
His legacy is a disgrace though, but the whole system was broken. Probably in some ways still is. The police troops in the field (not all) were happy to plant, and manufacture evidence at will. Condoned by their masters. They in turn were more than willing to get their man at any cost. The hierarchy were shameful in their approach to suspects.

The whole system was corrupt.....The police would trump up charges manipulate, manufacture, or plant evidence to charge the suspect and then Wade would do the rest. Knowing full well they were railroading innocent people.

Hell they sent an innocent to the electric chair, and as near as I can tell, they knew he was not guilty. Shame on all of them

Add on assistant DA's like James K Allen and Bill Alexander, two true zealots.

An avid example:

https://www.dallasnews.com/news/crime/2008/10/13/innocent-mans-identification-i


What happened in this case raises the troubling question of what would have happened if the "Christopher Jones'' listed in the warrant had been arrested and the mistake not discovered?

"Based on the eyewitness identifications the case would have gone forward and it likely would have gone to trial,'' Lt. Lannom said.

Lt. Lannom said the two Christopher Jones' do look very similar and said she had a difficult time telling them apart when looking at their mugshots side by side. Police never made contact with the "Christopher Jones" who was identified by witnesses so he likely does not know how close he came to being in the legal crosshairs.

Cheers, Ed

Ed. Ledoux wrote:An avid example:

https://www.dallasnews.com/news/crime/2008/10/13/innocent-mans-identification-i


What happened in this case raises the troubling question of what would have happened if the "Christopher Jones'' listed in the warrant had been arrested and the mistake not discovered?

"Based on the eyewitness identifications the case would have gone forward and it likely would have gone to trial,'' Lt. Lannom said.

Lt. Lannom said the two Christopher Jones' do look very similar and said she had a difficult time telling them apart when looking at their mugshots side by side. Police never made contact with the "Christopher Jones" who was identified by witnesses so he likely does not know how close he came to being in the legal crosshairs.

Cheers, Ed

thanks Ed,

Yep that 2nd Jones fellow doesn't probably appreciate how close a call he had. I'm after Sate(Wade) v accused from the 1950's thru 1963 I can only see Findatrial Texas with a subscription for that info, is that right Ed?

No worry Mick,
Another case I may not have shared is the Marshall case.
https://www.themarshallproject.org/2017/06/12/the-man-who-spent-35-years-in-prison-without-a-trial

Checking cases for StateV. '50-63
Let you know if that works.
Cheers, Ed

Thanks Ed,
All you can do is shake your head. It's quite upsetting and unsettling all at once.
The Hartfield case is as bad as it gets

Thanks for sharing mate

Ed,

I have a list of cases which have the convicted either exonerated, conviction overturned or pardoned.
Tommy Lee Walker's case does not belong to this category. 

only one from the 50's though

1950's

State (Wade) v Tommy Lee Walker

1970's to current day

State (Wade or Wades office) v 


Lenell Geter
Thomas Miller-El
Steven Phillips 
Eugene Henton
James Waller
Greg Wallis
James Giles
Billy Smith

There are approximately 25 cases which have been overturned with new DNA evidence since the Innocence project got underway from Dallas county, many of them under Wades tenure. If anyone can add to the list much appreciated.

Cheers Ed

The Tommy Lee walker case is especially of interest.

It was the beginning of the formidable combination of Henry Wade and Will Fritz.

Both of whom over the years refused more than several times to take promotions offered to them.
Preferring to stay put, in their positions of power.

Thanks Vinny, thanks for sharing these small glimpses of Will Fritz.

Clearly Will Fritz would have considered Oswald's interrogations a miserable failure.

Welcome Mick. Will Fritz is quite a fascinating character.

Above clippings from the Albuquerque Journal, Nov. 24, 1963.