In a racial­ly charged case rais­ing ques­tions of pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al over­charg­ing, inad­e­quate rep­re­sen­ta­tion, and ques­tion­able jury prac­tices, Kharon Davis (pic­tured), an African-American man charged with cap­i­tal mur­der in Dothan, Alabama, has been impris­oned for 10 years with­out tri­al. Davis — who has con­sis­tent­ly main­tained his inno­cence and whose pri­or offense was dri­ving with­out a license — was 22 years old when he and two oth­ers were arrest­ed for the shoot­ing death of a man from whom they were pur­chas­ing mar­i­jua­na. After refus­ing a plea deal, Davis’s case has gone through two judges, three pros­e­cu­tors, four sets of defense lawyers, and nine sched­uled tri­al dates, and he has been placed in seg­re­ga­tion in the coun­ty jail for minor infrac­tions, faced restric­tions on his abil­i­ty to review legal doc­u­ments, and been denied vis­its by his moth­er. A New York Times report described the pre-tri­al delays as ​“among the most pro­tract­ed” the paper could find, and George Washington University law pro­fes­sor and con­sti­tu­tion­al con­sul­tant Jonathan Turley said ​“It is impos­si­ble to look at [the case] and not find it deeply, deeply trou­bling.” Houston County’s District Attorney Doug Valeska’s deci­sion to seek the death penal­ty reignit­ed ques­tions of the county’s overuse of the death penal­ty. Despite a pop­u­la­tion of only 103,000, its 17-per­son death row makes Houston County one of the most pro­lif­ic death-sen­tenc­ing coun­ties in the coun­try. The county’s pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al and law enforce­ment prac­tices have also come under scruti­ny: a num­ber of cap­i­tal cas­es have been over­turned for racial­ly biased jury selec­tion, pre­sent­ing improp­er evi­dence, and improp­er com­ments to juries. In 2015, Valeska also was accused of cov­er­ing up evi­dence that a group of Dothan police offi­cers with ties to white suprema­cist groups had been plant­i­ng drugs on young black men. Davis’s case has been rife with ques­tion­able activ­i­ty. His first lawyer, Benjamin Meredith, was the father of one of the inves­ti­gat­ing offi­cers in the case and cross-exam­ined his son in the pre­lim­i­nary hear­ing. That con­flict was not dis­closed for four years, after a new judge was appoint­ed in the case, when Valeska brought it to the atten­tion of the court. In those four years, Meredith had filed only two motions on Davis’s behalf. In that same time, Davis’s co-defen­dant, Lorenzo Staley, who told police where to find the gun used in the mur­der, went to tri­al in 2009 and was acquit­ted. A sec­ond co-defen­dant, Kevin McCloud — a child­hood friend of Davis’s who had no crim­i­nal record — had pled guilty and agreed to tes­ti­fy against Davis to avoid the death penal­ty, although McCloud lat­er said in a let­ter that Valeska had asked him to ​“get on the stand and lie” about Davis’s involve­ment in the case. The case was fur­ther delayed when, look­ing through the court record of Staley’s tri­al, new defense coun­sel dis­cov­ered a gun­shot residue kit that pros­e­cu­tors had failed to dis­close. A new dis­trict attor­ney who had once rep­re­sent­ed one of the co-defen­dants was elect­ed in February 2017, requir­ing the case to be trans­ferred to the attor­ney general’s office. At that point, the pros­e­cu­tion dropped the death penal­ty from the case. Finally, on September 19, the tri­al was again held up amid alle­ga­tions that some mem­bers of the new­ly empan­eled jury of 11 whites and one black may have had improp­er con­tact with peo­ple con­nect­ed to the case.

(M. Forehand, ​“Allegations of inap­pro­pri­ate juror con­ver­sa­tions slow Kharon Davis tri­al,” Dothan Eagle, September 19, 2017; S. Kovaleski, ​“Justice Delayed: 10 Years in Jail, but Still Awaiting Trial,” The New York Times, September 19, 2017; R. Balko, ​“Doubts raised about report that Dothan, Ala. police plant­ed drugs on young black men,” Washington Post, December 3, 2015.) See Arbitrariness, Prosecutorial Misconduct, Representation, and Race.

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