Innocent Texas Death Row Inmate Released – Sherman & Plano, TX Criminal Defense Lawyer
Innocent Texas death-row inmate Anthony Graves was released earlier this week from the Burleson County Jail. Mr. Graves was wrongly imprisoned for 18 years, most of it on death row, due to the horrendous behavior of dishonest and unethical prosecutors. As KHOU noted,
“The only evidence tying Graves to the killings was Carter’s testimony, and Carter recanted just before his 1998 execution. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans overturned Graves’ conviction in 2006, ruling that prosecutors withheld evidence and elicited false testimony.”
Mr. Graves can take little comfort that he will get a pittance in compensation from the State of Texas for his time on death row due to suborning of perjury and hiding of evidence by those who swore an oath to “seek justice.” He does have a great civil rights claim under 42 U.S.C 1983 and 1985 for violation of civil rights and conspiracy to violate civil rights against those involved. Such claims cannot be brought until a criminal prosecution ends successfully for the defendant, so he is well within the statute of limitations. Hopefully those who prosecuted him are no longer lawyers, and certainly no longer criminal lawyers.