Michael Toney, who recent­ly became the 136th per­son exon­er­at­ed and freed from death row since 1973, died in a car crash on October 3 in East Texas. He had been released from jail one month ago on September 2 after the state dropped all charges against him for a 1985 bomb­ing that killed three peo­ple. Toney’s con­vic­tion was over­turned on December 17, 2008 by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals because the pros­e­cu­tion sup­pressed evi­dence relat­ing to the cred­i­bil­i­ty of its only two wit­ness­es against him. The Tarrant County District Attorney’s Office sub­se­quent­ly with­drew from the case based on the mis­con­duct find­ings. In September 2009, the Attorney General’s Office, which had been spe­cial­ly appoint­ed to the case in the wake of Tarrant County’s with­draw­al, dis­missed the indict­ment against Toney. He had con­sis­tent­ly main­tained his inno­cence. The case had gone unsolved for 14 years until a jail inmate told author­i­ties that Toney had con­fessed to the crime. The inmate lat­er recant­ed his sto­ry, say­ing he had hoped to win ear­ly release. The state said it is con­tin­u­ing its inves­ti­ga­tion into the murders.

Toney was the 10th inmate exon­er­at­ed from Texas’ death row. The cri­te­ria for inclu­sion on DPIC’s com­pi­la­tion of exon­er­at­ed individuals is:

Defendants must have been con­vict­ed, sen­tenced to death and subsequently either-
a) their con­vic­tion was over­turned AND
i) they were acquit­ted at re-tri­al or
ii) all charges were dropped
b) they were giv­en an absolute par­don by the gov­er­nor based on new evi­dence of innocence. 

(A. Branch, ​“Man con­vict­ed in bomb­ing dies in wreck 1 month after his release,” Ft. Worth Star-Telegram, Oct. 4, 2009 (includ­ing pic­ture); also email from J. Tyler, Texas Defender Service, Oct. 4, 2009). See Innocence.

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