Today in a Dallas court, Patrick Waller was freed after spending 15 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit.

Even though Waller has requested DNA testing of his evidence since 2001, the Dallas DA’s office opposed it until the current DA, Craig Watkins, took office.

While many people, locally and nationwide, are aghast at the amount of people being released from prison due to wrongful conviction in Dallas, they are overlooking a critical component:

Dallas is not the norm when it comes to preserving evidence. Dallas has made it a policy to preserve evidence going back decades and most other counties do NOT. So rather than chastising Dallas for an “wild west mentality” of applying the law, they should be given equal thanks that the county DID preserve the evidence.

It’s truly horrifying to think of how many people are sitting in prison cells around the country that will never have the opportunity to prove their innocence because the evidence wasn’t kept.

Now, if Dallas County will just do the right thing when it comes to Darlie Routier, that would be beneficial. Did Darlie kill her children? Without being there, who is to say but why are the courts so afraid to allow ALL the evidence be DNA tested rather than just the select items they’ve given the green light to.

The courts need to allow all of Routier’s evidence be DNA tested and if it comes back that she did it, so be it and keep her on Death Row. But if it clears her, let her out immediately so that she can have a chance to spend time with her youngest who was an infant at the time of the crime and is now a 12-year old.