And I think I may have found a prosecutor that I like. Wait ... before you send me that angry email.

I think it's a bad strategy, and often a statist one, to always be dissing lawyers as shysters and no-gooders and such. Plus we always hear that there are too many lawyers. True, the courts are packed with silly cases and greedy lawyers. But in an era of the drug war, paramilitary police, and political office-seeking, crooked prosecutors, I am glad that law schools continue to turn out "too many lawyers."

Tonight, 60 Minutes ran the heartbreaking story about James Woodard, the man who was locked away for 27 years by a reckless and power-seeking Dallas County prosecutor, Henry Wade, who ditched evidence that would have allowed the defense to successfully defend him. Woodard was convicted of raping and killing his girlfriend and lost all the best years of his life while he refused to admit guilt while in prison in order to have a chance at parole. No victim of Wade has served more time in prison than Woodard and then been released for being wrongly convicted.

Henry Wade is always referred to as "a legend." In fact, Wade was an FBI Special Agent under Hoover, and learned all of his dirty tricks from the Feds. As a prosecutor, he is said to have played dirty in order to win cases. Very dirty. He prosecuted - and probably executed - many innocent people. Since 2001, many innocent men have walked from Dallas County prison, freed because of DNA tests that proved their innocence. Several of them were on 60 Minutes, and they were all intelligent and articulate, and it makes you wonder how good men like that could sustain so many years of the brutality in the government's dungeon. Watching these men talk about their lost lives was painful.When Wade died, the New York Times ran a sappy story about how Wade was really just a folksy guy who played dominos and puttered on his farm. The Times also celebrated this:

He was district attorney from 1951 to 1987, and during the early years, when his office was relatively small, he often prosecuted cases himself. When he did, he never lost a single one. As a prosecutor in those years, and earlier during three years when he was assistant district attorney, he asked for death sentences on 30 occasions, and got them on 29.

Even the liberal Times celebrates a man who brings death to men when it's the state that is killing them. (See my thoughts on the death penalty here.)

The Innocence Project of Texas is sifting through years of cases - as they did with Woodard's - looking for signs that innocent people may have been wrongly convicted. Law students donate their time to work with the project, and in fact it was a volunteer law student who investigated Woodard's case.

The new Dallas County DA, Craig Watkins, appears to be sincere in his attempt to reform the office that turned into a conviction and killing machine under Wade. (Wade's motto was "conviction at all costs.") He is cooperating with the Innocence Project in regards to investigating old cases and has sworn to make things right as best as he can. Watkins has admitted to uncovering all kinds of shenanigans, including prosecutorial misconduct, and fortunately, he has been able to bring justice to some of the victims of previous prosecutors.

All said, thank goodness for all the aggressive, passionate lawyers who will defend individuals from the state, its injustices, and its execution machine.