In addition, Wade was district attorney when Randall Dale Adams, the subject of the 1988 documentary film The Thin Blue Line, was wrongfully convicted in the murder of Robert Wood, a Dallas police officer.

After his term and death, he was criticised for his corruption, ranging from wrongful convictions, to altitudes and certain comments on race, in addition to some decisions such as execution of innocent men.

The case worked its way through the appellate process, culminating in the Supreme Court's landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that made all first trimester abortions legal throughout the United States.

He continued to serve in office for an additional 14 years, and he remained a fixture around the new Crowley Courts Building, where members of the Dallas Bar called him "the Chief".

The documentary tells the story of Randall Dale Adams' 1977 conviction for the murder of Robert Wood, a Dallas police officer.

[citation needed] In a January 1964 Dallas Times Herald, Wade's wife was quoted: "I’d be afraid to drink a glass of light wine and then drive to the drugstore...If the police stopped me, I know what Henry would do.

"[6] Several articles later noted that a 1963 internal memo in Wade's office advised against "Jews, Negroes, Dagos, Mexicans or a member of any minority race" from serving on a jury.

[7] In 1969, Jon Sparling, one of Wade's top assistants, wrote a training manual warning against picking, among others, "free-thinkers" and "extremely overweight people," and said, "You are not looking for a fair juror but rather a strong, biased and sometimes hypocritical individual who believes that defendants are different from them.

Before Wade's death, DNA evidence was used for the first time to reverse a Dallas County conviction; David Shawn Pope, found guilty of rape in 1986, who had spent 15 years in prison.

Gray stated that "Henry Wade wouldn't intentionally try to convict someone he knew to be innocent...but even in cases where evidence was weak, he would go all out, go for broke, be super-competitive.