INNOCENCE: Alfred Dewayne Brown is Released from Texas Death Row; Nation’s 154^th Death-Row Exoneration

Harris County, Texas pros­e­cu­tors announced on June 8 that they have dis­missed charges against Alfred Dewayne Brown, who had been sen­tenced to death in 2005 for the mur­ders of a Houston police offi­cer and a store clerk dur­ing a rob­bery. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals had over­turned Brown’s con­vic­tion last year because pros­e­cu­tors with­held a phone record that sup­port­ed Brown’s ali­bi. Prosecutors in 2013 said that the phone record had been inad­ver­tent­ly mis­placed. Brown had long main­tained that he had been alone at his girl­friend’s apart­ment at the time of the mur­der, and that he had called her after see­ing reports of the shoot­ing on tele­vi­sion. Defense lawyers argued that the time of the phone call estab­lished that Brown could not have been at the store when the mur­der occurred. There was no phys­i­cal evi­dence against Brown, and a series of Pulitzer prize-win­ning columns by Houston Chronicle writer Lisa Falkenberg dis­closed irreg­u­lar­i­ties in the grand jury process, that Brown’s girl­friend had faced intim­i­dat­ing ques­tion­ing and threats of per­jury by a police offi­cer who was the grand jury fore­man, and that she had been jailed for sev­en weeks until she changed her tes­ti­mo­ny to impli­cate Brown. She has since recant­ed that tes­ti­mo­ny. District Attorney Devon Anderson said, ​“After very care­ful con­sid­er­a­tion, I have decid­ed that at this time, there is insuf­fi­cient evi­dence to cor­rob­o­rate the tes­ti­mo­ny of Brown’s co-defen­dant. Accordingly, we dis­missed Alfred Brown’s cap­i­tal mur­der case ear­li­er today. It is the right thing to do.” Since 2007, Brown’s attor­neys have com­piled strong evi­dence that the mur­der was com­mit­ted by anoth­er man with a his­to­ry of rob­bery and con­nec­tions to the co-defen­dants in the crime. Despite a 2008 motion to test the alter­nate sus­pec­t’s DNA, such a test has not been car­ried out. Alfred Brown is the 154^th per­son exon­er­at­ed from death row since 1973, the 13^th in Texas, and the fourth in 2015.

(B. Rogers, ​“DA drops charges against Alfred Brown,” Houston Chronicle, June 8, 2015; L. Falkenberg, ​“Evidence mounts that wrong man on death row for killing HPD offi­cer,” Houston Chronicle, December 20, 2014; L. Falkenberg, Cop was fore­man of grand jury in cop-killing, Houston Chronicle, July 24, 2014; L. Falkenberg, Mother of 3 pres­sured into chang­ing sto­ry, but jailed any­way, Houston Chronicle, July 7, 2014; image by Karen Warren, Houston Chronicle.) See Innocence.