On April 1, 2009, police in Houston, Texas arrested 28-year-old Wandra Jacobs after they confiscated a substance that field-tested positive for cocaine.
On April 17, 2009, Jacobs pled guilty in Harris County Criminal District Court to possession of a controlled substance. She was placed on deferred adjudication, but violated the terms of the status and in December 2009 was sentenced to 90 days in the Harris County Jail.
On April 29, 2009, The Houston Police Department crime laboratory tested the substance seized from Jacobs and no illegal drugs were detected.
The report of the lab tests was forwarded to the Harris County District Attorney’s Office, but was misplaced until years later.
Eventually, the Harris County District Attorney’s conviction integrity unit forwarded the lab report to a defense attorney for Jacobs and in 2016 joined in a state-law petition for a writ of habeas corpus. The trial judge recommended that the writ be granted.
In June 2016, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals granted the writ and vacated the conviction. On July 13, 2016, the prosecution dismissed the charge.
– Maurice Possley
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