In 2024, 26 former Texas inmates were proven innocent after having already been convicted of crimes they did not commit. According to the National Registry of Exonerations, almost all of these now-free individuals had attorneys who filed Texas 11.07 Habeas Corpus Applications. The 11.07 Application, while very difficult to win, is the most commonly used method of overturning convictions for innocent Texas inmates. It is also used to challenge other rights violations, including ineffective attorneys and improper judge rulings.
The intricacies of the Texas 11.07 became more accessible to the general public when Matt Daher wrote a book on the subject: Justice Lost, Justice Gained: How Five Texas Inmates Won Their 11.07 Appeals. The book discusses five cases where 11.07s were successful and shares the actual court decisions that recognized how these five inmates' rights had been violated.
Stories of Injustice and (Late) Rectification
From the back of the book:
- An innocent man wrongfully convicted of murdering his wife.
- A stressed babysitter convicted based on flawed science.
- A mentally disabled man over-sentenced for a crime he did not understand.
- A prosecutor sent to jail for his deliberate hiding of evidence.
These and other true stories in this book have one thing in common: the defendant ultimately found justice through a Texas 11.07 Habeas Corpus Application.
The 11.07 is one of the most powerful but least understood provisions of the Texas Code. Exceptionally difficult to win, 11.07 applications allow Texas inmates to bring out-of-court evidence to show how their rights were violated. This book discusses these cases and shares the actual court decisions that ruled in the defendants' favor — the words of judges who were forced to acknowledge the truth: these defendants were brutally wronged by the Texas criminal justice system, and overturning their convictions was the only fair outcome.
Justice Lost, Justice Gained is available on Amazon.com. To discuss a Texas 11.07 application with our team, contact Daher Law Group.