NEW PODCAST — Culture of Conviction: Brian Stolarz on How Houston Prosecutors Convicted His Innocent Client

In 2005, Alfred Dewayne Brown (pic­tured left) was wrong­ly con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death for the mur­der of a Houston, Texas police offi­cer based on false tes­ti­mo­ny Harris County pros­e­cu­tors obtained through coer­cion and threats. After spend­ing a decade on death row for a crime he did not com­mit, Brown was final­ly released with the help of his attor­ney Brian Stolarz (pic­tured right), who is the guest on DPIC’s lat­est pod­cast and author of Grace and Justice on Death Row, a book about Brown’s case. Stolarz, who rep­re­sent­ed Brown in post-con­vic­tion pro­ceed­ings, tells the sto­ry of his ​“decade-plus long jour­ney to help out this one man.” In the dis­cus­sion, Stolarz describes how he and his team real­ized upon inves­ti­ga­tion that every wit­ness had been ​“pres­sured and fright­ened” by the pros­e­cu­tor — who used tac­tics such as threat­en­ing to charge wit­ness­es with crimes — in order to secure Brown’s con­vic­tion. Stolarz calls this Harris County’s ​“cul­ture of con­vic­tion.” Brown’s girl­friend, Erica Dockery, who had ini­tial­ly tes­ti­fied before the grand jury that Brown was at her apart­ment at the time of the crime, became a crit­i­cal wit­ness against Brown. As Stolarz explains, Dockery’s choice to ​“aban­don the truth,” com­mit per­jury, and tes­ti­fy against Brown came only after the pros­e­cu­tor brought a base­less per­jury charge against her for her truth­ful grand jury tes­ti­mo­ny and jailed her with a bond so high she could­n’t pay it. In what Stolarz describes as ​“luck,” the retired case detec­tive found a box from the case while ​“spring clean­ing his garage,” and the box con­tained phone records that sup­port­ed Dockery’s ini­tial tes­ti­mo­ny and con­se­quent­ly Brown’s ali­bi. This evi­dence, along with oth­er wit­ness recan­ta­tions, helped win Brown’s release in June 2015. Although Brown has been free for almost three years, Stolarz explains that his fight for jus­tice is still ongo­ing, as he seeks com­pen­sa­tion for his unjust con­vic­tion. Before Brown can be com­pen­sat­ed under Texas state law, the District Attorney must sign a for­mal dec­la­ra­tion find­ing him inno­cent and pros­e­cu­tors had opposed such a dec­la­ra­tion. The pod­cast was record­ed in April 2018, sev­er­al weeks after recent rev­e­la­tions that Dan Rizzo, the assis­tant dis­trict attor­ney who pros­e­cut­ed Brown, had received an email inform­ing him that the phone records proved Dockery was telling the truth about Brown’s ali­bi before he charged her with per­jury and pros­e­cut­ed Brown for mur­der based on false tes­ti­mo­ny. Since the time of pod­cast record­ing, the cur­rent Harris County District Attorney, Kim Ogg, has appoint­ed a spe­cial pros­e­cu­tor to inves­ti­gate Brown’s inno­cence. Ogg said the recent dis­cov­ery of the email show­ing Rizzo knew years before tri­al that Brown’s ali­bi checked out ​“brought clar­i­ty to a very hot­ly con­test­ed alle­ga­tion as to whether or not [sup­press­ing that evi­dence from the defense] was inten­tion­al­ly done, whether it was done to obtain a guilty ver­dict at any cost.” Ogg said she believed the email ​“tend­ed to show Brown’s inno­cence, and not just his lack of guilt.” 

(Posted by DPIC, April 30, 2018.) Listen to the Discussions With DPIC pod­cast, Culture of Conviction: A Discussion with Attorney Brian Stolarz on How Houston Prosecutors Sent His Innocent Client, Alfred Dewayne Brown, to Death Row and How Hidden Evidence Set Brown Free, here. (Lisa Faulkenberg, Alfred Dewayne Brown deserves final bit of jus­tice for 12 years he lost behind bars, Houston Chronicle, May 2, 2018; Lisa Falkenberg, Alfred Dewayne Brown has more time than he thought, Houston Chronicle, May 3, 2018.) See Podcasts, Prosecutorial Misconduct, Innocence.