Green's lawyers have questioned the reliability of ballistics evidence, but the Houston police lab controversy for the past two years has centered on the reliability of its DNA testing procedures.

DNA retesting has been ordered in about 400 other cases, including 17 of death-row inmates who have not been assigned execution dates.

Green made a final statement, apologizing to families of the victims.

"I do not come here with the intention to make myself out to be a person I am not," Green said in a brief final statement. "I never claimed to be the best person. ... I did the best I could with what I had."

I first caught wind of this epidemic in Houston after watching an special on CourtTV by Al Roker called "Al Roker Investigates". In this session he took "...an in-depth look at a Houston, Texas crime lab where crucial DNA evidence was misinterpreted, and sometimes lost."

In this special he spoke with one of the state senators who helped bring attention to the horribly conditions in that Houson crime lab. He was shown pictures that show rain damage to the ceiling tiles, with a big plastic garbage bin catching leaking rainwater, right next to the area where blood and semen samples were to be tested. The hallways had mounds of confiscated marijuana lying around due to lack of storage. As a result of the dilapidated conditions of that DNA testing lab, hundreds of cases involving DNA evidence tested at the lab are under evaluation for the need to re-test and possibly re-try convicted persons - many of which may be serving time on Texas's death row. Given this new information the Texas justice system has an obligation, both to the victims and to those convicted, to do the right thing and see this through. The problem, is, they are and have not. At least two inmates have been executed when there is serious doubt over the accuracy and validity of the DNA testing that was used to convict them. The truly frightening part of this is that a mistake like this can cost someone his or her life. If a re-evaluation of someone's case determines they are, in fact, guilty of the crime they are serving time in jail or on death row for, then by all means, uphold their sentence. But, if there is even a shadow of a doubt that the conviction may not be truly justified then that inmate deserves the opportunity to have their case evidence reviewed. Once you kill someone, there are no do-overs and the Houston justice system does not appear to understand that.