At around 6 a.m. on November 2, 1982, a 12-year-old boy and his 7-year-old brother were alone in their house in Dallas, Texas, after their mother and older brother had left for work. They woke to find a man in their house, who ordered the 12-year-old, identified as J.C., to put his face down on the pillow.
The boy said he got a quick look at the man, even though it was dark outside and the man wore a cowboy hat and had a bandana over the lower part of his face. The man tied the boy’s hands behind his back, forced the victim to perform oral sex, and anally raped him. The man then told J.C. that he was going to get a “friend” and that the friend would hurt him if the victim told anyone about the incident.
J.C. told the police that his attacker was a Black man who was 5 feet 8 inches tall and weighed about 150 pounds. J.C. went to the hospital where a rape kit was collected. Police also collected the sheet from J.C.’s bed.
The evening after the assault, J.C. was in a corner store near his apartment building when he thought he heard the voice of the man who attacked him. He turned around and saw 26-year-old James Waller, whom J.C. believed was his attacker.
J.C. ran home and told the apartment manager. At about that same time, Waller walked into the apartment building, as he also lived there.
The police were called. The apartment manager told police that she had seen a man with a bandana and a cowboy hat around 6 a.m. on the morning of the crime, but that she did not recognize him.
Based on J.C.’s identification, Waller was arrested on November 4, 1982 on a charge of aggravated sexual abuse.
Waller went to trial in January 1983 in Dallas County Criminal District Court. J.C. testified and identified him. The defense noted that J.C.’s description of his attacker was vastly different from Waller who was 6 feet 4 inches tall and much heavier than 150 pounds.
The apartment manager now testified that Waller was the man she had seen wearing a cowboy hat and a bandana. The manager also told the police that she had found an address book outside of J.C.’s apartment 10 weeks after the crime. The book belonged to Mr. Waller.
A forensic analyst testified that spermatozoa was found in the rape kit. No analysis was done on the sheets.
Three Negroid hair fragments had been found on the sheet. The victim and his family were white, so the fragments were initially thought to be the attacker’s. An analyst from the Dallas County Institute of Forensic Sciences testified that microscopic analysis of the hairs determined that the hairs were not similar to Waller’s hairs, but he also said that excluding Waller as a possible perpetrator was impossible based on hair.
“If you wanted to say that this hair did not come from this individual, you would have to check it against every hair to be positive that it did not come from that individual,” the analyst said. “[One would] practically have to denude a person to make a proper comparison.”
Waller testified and denied committing the crime. He said that he was at home sleeping with his girlfriend at the time of the crime.
Waller testified that his family was forced to move out of the apartment two weeks after he was arrested. He said that since the address book was high up in a closet, they left it behind. He surmised that the new tenants may have thrown it away.
Waller’s girlfriend and his cousin, who was staying with them, both testified and corroborated his account of his whereabouts at the time of the crime.
On February 1, 1983, a jury convicted Waller of aggravated sexual abuse. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison.
Mr. Waller was released on parole in 1993.
After saving up money for DNA testing, Waller asked for DNA testing on the rape kit slides in 2001. The Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) performed DNA testing, but could not get a conclusive result.
Waller then asked for DNA testing on the hairs. He was excluded as the source of the hairs in 2002, but the prosecution successfully argued that this was not sufficient to overturn his conviction.
Later that year, the Innocence Project took on Waller’s case and found that the DPS laboratory had consumed the sample, but still had “extracts” at the lab that could be tested. Orchid Cellmark then performed testing on the extracts in 2006 and both Waller and the victim were excluded.
On December 19, 2006, 23 years after his conviction, Waller's conviction was vacated and the case was dismissed. He was officially pardoned by Governor Rick Perry on March 9, 2007.
Subsequently, Waller was awarded $1.2 million in state compensation and a $7,000 monthly annuity.
– Maurice Possley
Posting Date: 08-29-2011
Last Update Date: 03-09-2026
