DALLAS — Attorneys are pushing for a new capital murder trial for a man sentenced to life in prison after they learned his case was among those reviewed for missing Dallas police evidence. This is the second known plea for a court to rehear a case — indicating such legal moves could be a trend amid widespread evidence preservation issues.
In the motion filed Wednesday, lawyers for Da’Kerrick Hamilton, 30, argue his trial lawyers could have asked for a delay to investigate the missing evidence had they known about it. A similar court request was filed in another case that same day.
Dallas police are reviewing about 450 murders and capital murders for missing evidence. In early March, The Dallas Morning News broke the story about the audit amid other police storage and evidence issues. Of the initial cases reviewed, Hamilton’s is one of 14 homicides determined to have deleted evidence, according to records obtained by The News this week under the Texas Public Information Act.
