After Being Exonerated From Texas’ Death Row, Clarence Brandley Never Received Justice

Clarence Brandley (pic­tured) was wrong­ful­ly con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death in 1981 in Texas for the rape and mur­der of a 16-year-old white girl. From the out­set, he was tar­get­ed based on his race. On the day of the mur­der, a police offi­cer said to the two jan­i­tors at the school who had found the deceased, ​“One of you two is going to hang for this.” Then, turn­ing to Brandley, said, ​“Since you’re the n****r, you’re elected.” 

Brandley was final­ly exon­er­at­ed and freed from Texas’ death row in 1990. Judge Perry Pickett ordered a re-tri­al for Brandley, which even­tu­al­ly result­ed in the pros­e­cu­tion drop­ping charges. Judge Pickett remarked from the bench, ​“In the 30 years this Court has presided over mat­ters in the judi­cial sys­tem, no case has pre­sent­ed a more shock­ing sce­nario of the effects of racial prej­u­dice, per­jured tes­ti­mo­ny, wit­ness intim­i­da­tion, an inves­ti­ga­tion, the out­come of which was pre­de­ter­mined, and pub­lic offi­cials who, for what­ev­er motives, lost sight of what is right and just.” 

After his exon­er­a­tion, Brandley sought com­pen­sa­tion for him­self and his five chil­dren from the state through var­i­ous avenues but was repeat­ed­ly denied. He died on September 2, 2018, but his fam­i­ly con­tin­ued efforts to obtain resti­tu­tion. None of the offi­cials involved in the wrong­ful con­vic­tion ever faced any reper­cus­sions, and even after Brandley’s release, the case was not reopened or investigated further. 

Since charges against Brandley were sim­ply dropped by the pros­e­cu­tion, he need­ed a dec­la­ra­tion of inno­cence to qual­i­fy for com­pen­sa­tion under Texas law. In October 2018, his broth­er, Ozell Brandley, met with Montgomery County District Attorney Brett Ligon, who agreed to hire a pri­vate inves­ti­ga­tor and pro­vide an update in 3 – 6 months. Four years lat­er, the DA’s office wrote in an email to the fam­i­ly that ​“we are unaware of any devel­op­ments from this inves­ti­ga­tion.” A 2019 let­ter to Texas Governor Greg Abbott seek­ing a posthu­mous par­don remains unan­swered, as well.

Ozell Brandley remarked, ​“Silence reigns with no remedy…there is no jus­tice for those wrong­ful­ly con­vict­ed, incar­cer­at­ed, and sen­tenced to death. No jus­tice in the court­room. No jus­tice in com­pen­sa­tion for those whose lives and fam­i­lies have been dev­as­tat­ed and suf­fered unmer­ci­ful humil­i­a­tion and shame.”