If you have been charged with a drug crime, you are probably rather concerned about how it will impact your present situation as well as your future. If you know that you did not commit the offense, you may be even more worried and you may wonder whether there is any way that you will be able to show the court that you did not commit the offense. This is a real concern because sometimes, individuals are wrongfully convicted of drug crimes.

One example of a wrongful drug crime conviction occurred when a Houston police officer plucked a spot of white powder off the floorboard of the defendant’s car after he had just detailed it. The officer tested the powder with a simple test kit that is known to have a high error rate, and it came back positive for cocaine. No one mentioned that the sample would be tested by a crime lab to double check the officer’s test kit result. Although the driver maintained his innocence, he accepted a plea deal because a conviction could have given him up to thirty years in prison. Seven years later, the Harris County District Attorney’s Office notified him that there had been no cocaine found in the sample. After successfully filing a writ of habeas corpus with the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, he was finally exonerated.

Unfortunately, that driver’s story is not the only story where crime lab test results could exonerate a defendant who was convicted of a drug offense. Nearly three hundred similar instances have been revealed by a recent audit of drug cases by the Harris County District Attorney’s Office. In all of these cases, roadside tests or officers’ observations were used to establish probable cause for the arrests. While roadside drug tests are not very accurate and cannot be used as evidence, they are still used to establish probable cause which leads to arrest.

In many of the wrongful convictions discovered during the audit, the defendants sat in jail as they awaited trial because they were unable to post bail. Drug offenders, including misdemeanor drug offenders with little or no criminal history, are often required to post bail. Some of these defendants even accepted plea deals to get out of jail faster even though they had done nothing wrong.

One of the effects of the audit was a change in the District Attorney’s policies. Prosecutors generally won’t  accept a guilty plea in a felony drug cases before they receive lab reports that confirm the evidence. However, defendants should know that plea deals are still accepted prior to lab testing in misdemeanor drug cases and in select types of felony cases which enable jailed defendants to qualify for probation.

The reason that test results are not always readily available is that lab officials had implemented system for drug testing that had test results coming back months or even years after the defendant entered their guilty plea. Some test results showed officer errors like misidentification that led to the arrests. Overall, the audit demonstrated that drug case evidence could be flawed, and that is something that each defendant can remember to explore with their attorney as they proceed through the stages of their criminal matter.

Facing drug charges can be tough, but you do not have to go it alone. A knowledgeable East Texas Defense Attorney can help you navigate your criminal case all the way through to its resolution. To learn more, call attorney Alex Tyra today at (903) 753-7499 to schedule your free consultation.