Historic review of 300 cases for potential wrongful convictions

"It's hell because you feel like the whole world has turned on you," said Anthony Graves, who was exonerated after spending years on Texas Death Row for a crime he didn't commit. "You hear reports about you and they're calling you something that you're not. You have to grow tough skin because it can really damage a person."

Graves is far from being the only innocent man to be convicted of a crime.

300 Harris County residents who were convicted of felonies other than capital murder between 2001 and 2008 will have their cases reviewed for post-conviction DNA testing.

"We make mistakes and every industry and every organization makes mistakes," said Harris County Assistant District Attorney Gerald Doyle. "What we have to do is be willing to confront those mistakes, own up to the mistakes and make sure they get corrected."

This unprecedented review by the Harris County District Attorney's Office, The Innocence Project of Texas and the Anthony Graves Foundation is funded by a $250,000 grant from the Justice Department.

"It talks about the DA we now have today that is seeking justice on behalf of us all," said Graves. "For her to allow her department to partner up with an exoneree to resolve cases, it says that the ball has moved."

For the next two years, 300 Harris County felony convictions will be reviewed to determine if DNA testing was done. If not, then there will be a need to determine if it should be and if retesting could make a difference.

At this point, the 300 convicted felons claiming actual innocence are not being notified about the new reviews.

"It doesn't benefit the victim, it doesn't benefit the community, it doesn't benefit anyone to have the wrong person in jail," added Doyle.