Texas Woman Exonerated of Wrongful Conviction After 18 Years

In September 2005, Rosa Jimenez was convicted in the death of a 21-month-old toddler she was babysitting when he choked on paper towels and died from related complications. Jimenez has maintained her innocence for nearly two decades. In October 2019, nearly 15 years after she was convicted, a judge overturned Jimenez's murder conviction and ordered a new trial based on her being denied her constitutional right to present qualified medical experts. She was originally charged with a 99-year prison sentence.

On Monday, in Travis County District Court in Austin TX, Jimenez was exonerated of the charges as District Attorney José Garza made a motion on behalf of the state to dismiss the indictment. The Travis County DA's Office joined the Innocence Project to present the state's Motion to Dismiss Indictment in Jimenez's case.

At the time, the state's experts testified that it would have been impossible for the toddler to swallow the paper towels on his own. But pediatric airway specialists have since refuted that claim, stating the exact opposite to be true: Toddlers often ingest foreign objects, and there would have been signs of a significant fight if there had been an attempt to force the wad of paper towels down the baby's throat.

“As prosecutors, we have an obligation to ensure the integrity of convictions and to seek justice,” DA Garza said. “In the case against Rosa Jimenez, it is clear that false medical testimony was used to obtain her conviction, and without that testimony under the law, she would not have been convicted. Dismissing Ms. Jimenez’s case is the right thing to do. Our hearts also continue to break for the Gutierrez family. In this case, our criminal justice system failed them, and it also failed Rosa Jimenez. Our hope is that by our actions today, by exposing the truth that Ms. Jimenez did not commit the crime for which she was accused, we can give some sense of closure and peace to both families.”

"It's just astonishing to think how long everybody's been working on this case, even when it became clear so early on that you did not commit this crime," said Barry Scheck, a founding attorney of the Innocence Project, sitting next to Jimenez during a news conference hosted at the Cardozo School of Law in New York.

"I'm excited. I'm grateful that this day came," Jimenez said from New York during a joint news conference Monday on Zoom. "I'm grateful for everybody that believed in me at the beginning to the end."

You can read more about Jimenez's case and exoneration in her feature "Rosa Jimenez Is Exonerated of a Crime That Never Took Place After 20 Years" on the Innocence Project website.