" text="white"> ~INTRODUCTION~

David Hicks is a 34 year old black male. He has been on death row in Texas since 1989, sentenced to die by lethal injection for the rape and murder, on 25th April 1988, of his 87 year old grandmother, Ms. Ocolor Heggar. He has always maintained his innocence. Evidence against David was slim - some "jailbird" testimony from an inmate who claimed that David confessed to him, and two more who said David had asked how to get blood out of clothing.
David was suspect because he was in the vicinity of his grandmother's house at the time of the crime. There was no indication that he had been inside - except, apparently, for the DNA evidence, without which District Attorney Bob Gage freely admitted the case would have remained unsolved.
The test apparently determined that similarities between sections of DNA removed from David's blood and DNA recovered from semen in Ms. Heggar's house would occur only once in 96 million people. Evidence like that should be regarded as all-but conclusive, certainly enough to convict someone on a serious charge - or should it? We will return to this vitally important point later


(excerpts from "Friends For Life" http://www.friends-for-life.demon.co.uk/index.html )