When Craig Watkins ran for district attorney in Dallas County , Texas , he promised to fight for justice and through an innovative and unconventional new division he founded ; he 's been true to his word . In July 2007 , Watkins created the nation 's first Conviction Integrity Unit ( CIU ) run by a DA 's office and tasked it with re-examining hundreds of petitions submitted by inmates seeking post-conviction DNA testing and reinvestigating the cases that could be possible examples of injustice . Dallas County has more exonerations than any other jurisdiction in the nation since state law began allowing post-conviction testing in 2001 . In that time , more than 40 cases have received post-conviction DNA evidence analysis and the results have stunned the nation -- to date , 19 cases were found to have wrongful convictions , and under DA Watkins ' leadership ten innocent men have walked free .