The murder conviction of a man on death row in Texas has been overturned after the state’s criminal appeals court found prosecutors withheld evidence that could have aided his defense.
Alfred Dewayne Brown was convicted of murdering a Houston police officer in a 2003 shooting that was allegedly a three-man robbery gone wrong. A jury sentenced Brown to death in 2005 on the insistence of Harris County prosecutors, who will now decide whether to re-try Brown, according to the Houston Chronicle, which has covered the case extensively.
The decision from the Texas court of criminal appeals to send the case back to a lower court comes more than one year after the original trial judge Mark Kent Ellis requested Brown receive a new trial, even asking the appeal court to “Please hurry,” according to the Chronicle.
The decision to overturn Brown’s conviction hinged on evidence of a phonecall.
The Pittsburgh-based defense firm K&L Gates searched for six years for records of a call Brown said he made on the morning of the murder. Prosecutors said he and his alleged fellow conspirators were watching news coverage of the robbery at about 10am on 3 April 2003. Brown said he was at his girlfriend’s apartment and had made a phonecall to her employer.
A record of the call was eventually found when a homicide detective was cleaning out his garage last year. The find was not only potentially exonerating, but also a violation of a guiding principle of prosecutorial conduct, called a “Brady” violation. The Brady case precedent requires prosecutors to turn over evidence to defense attorneys.
Prosecutors said the failure was a mistake, not malicious. Prosecutors are not saying whether they will re-try Brown’s case. Harris County district attorney Devon Anderson would “carefully review and evaluate the case to determine the appropriate proceedings”, said her spokesperson, Jeff McShan.
