Former Texas Death Row Prisoner Clinton Young Sues Prosecutor for Misconduct

On September 18, 2023, for­mer Texas death-sen­tenced pris­on­er Clinton Young filed a fed­er­al civ­il rights law­suit in the Western District of Texas, accus­ing two Midland County dis­trict attor­neys, the pros­e­cu­tor on his case, and Midland County itself, for vio­lat­ing his con­sti­tu­tion­al right to a fair tri­al. Just four months after his 18^th birth­day in 2001, Mr. Young and two oth­ers, David Page and Darnell McCoy, went on a drug-induced spree that result­ed in the deaths of two indi­vid­u­als. In 2003, Mr. Young was sen­tenced to death for these mur­ders. He admit­ted that he was present dur­ing the cross-Texas trip that result­ed in these deaths but main­tained that he did not shoot any­one. At tri­al, Mr. Page tes­ti­fied against Mr. Young, claim­ing that Mr. Young was respon­si­ble for shoot­ing both men. Mr. Young’s attor­neys now believe that Mr. Page tes­ti­fied against their client in exchange for a lighter sen­tence, which was not prop­er­ly dis­closed at tri­al. In 2017, Mr. Young came with­in 8 days of his sched­uled exe­cu­tion date before the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (TCCA) stayed the exe­cu­tion based on Mr. Page’s incon­sis­tent tes­ti­mo­ny and new­ly dis­cov­ered DNA evi­dence con­nect­ing Mr. Page, not Mr. Young, to gloves found at a crime scene. Two years lat­er, Midland County District Attorney Laura Nodolf recused her­self from Mr. Young’s case and report­ed Ralph Petty, the pros­e­cu­tor on Mr. Young’s case, to the court for inves­ti­ga­tion of mis­con­duct alle­ga­tions. In 2021, the TCCA over­turned Mr. Young’s con­vic­tion after the dis­cov­ery that Mr. Petty was secret­ly clerk­ing for coun­ty judges who over­saw Mr. Young’s case.

Former USA Today writer Jessica Priest report­ed in 2021 that Mr. Petty ​“pros­e­cut­ed at least 355 defen­dants while per­form­ing legal work for mul­ti­ple judges in Midland County.” In Mr. Young’s law­suit, he claims that Mr. Petty’s behav­ior was sup­port­ed by Midland County dis­trict attor­neys Al Schorre and Teresa Clingman, who allowed Mr. Petty to per­form legal ser­vices for dis­trict judges despite his ongo­ing role as a pros­e­cu­tor. In 2008, Ms. Clingman respond­ed to an IRS inquiry regard­ing Mr. Petty’s work sta­tus: ​“Ralph Petty is a full-time pros­e­cu­tor for Midland County. In his off hours, he works at the direc­tion of var­i­ous judges.” In Mr. Young’s case, Mr. Petty was not only a mem­ber of the pros­e­cut­ing team who argued against Mr. Young’s appeals, he also received pay­ment to ​“advise and draft opin­ions for the dis­trict judge who ruled on those same appeals.” Alexa Gervasi, Mr. Young’s attor­ney in the fed­er­al civ­il suit, argues that Mr. Petty’s behav­ior was an ille­gal abuse of pow­er, as ​“no one has more pow­er than a pros­e­cu­tor to take away a person’s liberty…”

Mr. Young’s law­suit is not the first against the Midland County DA’s office. Erma Wilson, a Midland County native, filed a sim­i­lar suit against Mr. Petty in 2022 for false­ly charg­ing her with drug pos­ses­sion. According to Ms. Wilson’s suit, Mr. Petty ​“invoiced judges for work on her case while simul­ta­ne­ous­ly advis­ing fel­low pros­e­cu­tors on her case.” Although her law­suit was dis­missed in October 2022, it is still on appeal. 

Mr. Young asserts that Mr. Petty and the Midland County DA’s office were able to assume dual roles because locals do not take issue with the prac­tice. According to Mr. Young, the dual role ​“was so com­mon in Midland, peo­ple saw it as nor­mal; there­fore, it was accept­ed.” Before his con­vic­tion was over­turned in 2021 and his release in 2022, Mr. Young spent near­ly two decades on death row in soli­tary con­fine­ment. He has since found work in Texas oil­fields and with a non­prof­it estab­lished in his name, which is ded­i­cat­ed to help­ing wrong­ful­ly con­vict­ed indi­vid­u­als on Texas’ death row. Despite being released, Mr. Young was rein­dict­ed for one of the 2001 mur­ders in August 2022. The Texas Attorney General’s office will be pros­e­cut­ing the case and will again seek a death sen­tence for Mr. Young. Ms. Gervasi filed Mr. Young’s civ­il suit with­in days of the expi­ra­tion of the statute of lim­i­ta­tions, explain­ing the delay was because Mr. Young was wor­ried the state would retal­i­ate. He changed his mind, Ms. Gervasi told the Texas Observer, and said that Mr. Young is will­ing to take a risk with his law­suit. ​“In his words, you know, what more can they do to him? They’re already try­ing to kill him,” Ms. Gervasi said.