A Texas tri­al court judge has for­mal­ly declared Alfred Dewayne Brown (pic­tured) ​“actu­al­ly inno­cent” of the mur­der charges that led to his wrong­ful con­vic­tion and death sen­tence in 2005. The order, issued on May 3, 2019 by Harris County District Court Judge George Powell, paves the way for Brown to receive com­pen­sa­tion from the state for the ten years he was wrong­ful­ly incar­cer­at­ed on death row for the killing of a Houston police officer.

Brown was exon­er­at­ed in 2015 after evi­dence showed that Harris County pros­e­cu­tors had manip­u­lat­ed the grand jury sys­tem, jailed a wit­ness until she agreed to false­ly impli­cate Brown, and sup­pressed phone records show­ing that Brown could not have been at the crime scene when the mur­der occurred. At that time, then-District Attorney Devon Anderson dis­missed all charges against Brown, but refused to pro­vide a state­ment that he was ​“actu­al­ly inno­cent,” which is a pre­req­ui­site for a wrong­ful­ly con­vict­ed per­son to receive com­pen­sa­tion from the state. Anderson’s suc­ces­sor, Kim Ogg, appoint­ed John Raley to serve as spe­cial pros­e­cu­tor to rein­ves­ti­gate the case and make a rec­om­men­da­tion regard­ing com­pen­sa­tion. Following a ten-month inves­ti­ga­tion, Raley pro­duced an exten­sive report detail­ing the prosecutor’s manip­u­la­tion of wit­ness­es to tes­ti­fy against Brown and sup­pres­sion of the phone records that cor­rob­o­rat­ed his ali­bi. The report con­clud­ed, ​“By clear and con­vinc­ing evi­dence, no rea­son­able juror would fail to have a rea­son­able doubt about whether Brown is guilty of mur­der. Therefore his case meets the legal def­i­n­i­tion of ​‘actu­al inno­cence.’” In March 2019, Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg signed an affi­davit declar­ing Brown ​“actu­al­ly innocent.”

After Ogg’s dec­la­ra­tion, Judge Powell assessed the legal ques­tion of whether he had juris­dic­tion to for­mal­ly declare Brown inno­cent. Based on the dec­la­ra­tion, Brown could be eli­gi­ble for near­ly $2 mil­lion in com­pen­sa­tion for the decade he was wrong­ful­ly con­fined on death row. Texas law gen­er­al­ly requires that an actu­al inno­cence find­ing be issued as part of the appeals process, specif­i­cal­ly through a writ of habeas cor­pus, but that process was not avail­able to Brown, whose legal case was already closed. The court con­sid­ered, but reject­ed, the pos­si­bil­i­ty of pros­e­cu­tors bring­ing new charges against Brown and dis­miss­ing the case anew, say­ing that would be an ​“absurd result” and a ​“sec­ond injus­tice.” Instead, Judge Powell rescind­ed his pre­vi­ous order that had for­mal­ly dis­missed the charges against Brown and issued a new one-page order specif­i­cal­ly stat­ing that ​“the crim­i­nal action…is DISMISSED due to Alfred Dewayne Brown’s actual innocence.”

Outside the court­room, Ogg reit­er­at­ed that Brown is inno­cent. ​“Alfred Brown was wrong­ful­ly con­vict­ed,” she said. ​“Given the state of the evi­dence today and the law as it’s applied we don’t believe that any rea­son­able juror would find Alfred Brown guilty under the evi­dence as it exists now.” Attorney Neal Manne said, “[t]he law of the state of Texas enti­tles [Brown] to com­pen­sa­tion but it can nev­er ful­ly com­pen­sate him for spend­ing 12 years in prison for a crime that he had no involve­ment in. But he’s enti­tled to the com­pen­sa­tion and I hope that he can now lead a peace­ful and hap­py life.” Despite the dec­la­ra­tion, and the report explain­ing Brown’s inno­cence, Houston’s police union con­tin­ues to assert that Brown is guilty of killing Officer Charles Clark. The union pres­i­dent said it plans to fight Brown’s com­pen­sa­tion. Brian Stolarz, one of the attor­neys who helped free Brown, respond­ed, say­ing, ​“Dewayne was peace­ful and grace­ful today. He thanks his lawyers and sup­port­ers and thanks the dis­trict attor­ney and spe­cial coun­sel for their thor­ough inves­ti­ga­tion. Clearing his name has been the goal since he was released almost four years ago, and to those who seek oth­er­wise, he meets hatred with love.” 

(Keri Blakinger, Harris County judge approves ​‘actu­al inno­cence’ find­ing for for­mer death row inmate Alfred Brown, Houston Chronicle, May 3, 2019.) See Innocence.

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