"MY defendant was unjustly incarcerated for 10 years, 11 months and three days of his life," affirmed the lawyer for James Waller, a Black man who is 6’4" and 200 lbs, convicted of rape in the city of Dallas, in the southern state of Texas, on November 2, 1982.

Waller was accused by the police of breaking into an apartment in the same building he lived in. The victim told police that her attacker was a short Black man: 5’8" and thin: that is, nothing at all like Waller.

In the trial held in Dallas, Waller presented witnesses who said that at the moment of the attack he was in his apartment with his wife. But his evidence and alibis were insufficient for the court. After only 46 minutes of deliberation, the jury sentenced him to 30 years in prison.

Waller did not give up. He continued to appeal and demanded that his DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) – which is present in semen and all of a human body’s cells – be tested, given that individuals can be precisely identified in that way.

During his appeals process, Waller received another blow: his pregnant wife, Doris, died in an auto accident while driving to a hearing at the court of appeals.

Many years later, the semen extracted from the victim underwent a test known as Y-STR DNA. The result: James Waller told the truth when he denied the accusations of rape. The rapist was someone else, not yet identified.

James Waller suffered every violation of his civil and human rights. For many years, as an inmate, he picked cotton without receiving a single penny as pay for his work. He also suffered the humiliation of being locked up and the brutal loss of his wife and unborn baby girl.

Because of the use of DNA techniques, James Waller is the 12th convicted rapist whose conviction was overturned in Dallas since 2001; a citywide record in the United States and an expression of the disdain on the part of police there for truth and justice. Almost all the cleared defendants were Black or Spanish-speaking, and the rest were poor whites. Other states that stand out in this sense are Illinois and New York.

In Florida, the case of Cuban immigrant Luis Díaz is still fresh. He was accused in Miami of being a repeat rapist, and was sentenced to life in prison. Luis and the witnesses who supported him always denied the accusations. A quarter of a century later, after growing old behind bars and losing his family and the "American dream," the DNA test finally proved his allegations of innocence.

In addition to the injustice committed, the real rapists and murderers are loose in the streets, and possibly committing other crimes with total impunity.