The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the state’s highest criminal court, vacated the conviction and death sentence of Alfred Brown, who has been on death row for murder since 2005. Brown has maintained his innocence and has said that a landline phone call he made from his girlfriend’s apartment the morning of the murder would prove it. At his trial, Brown’s attorneys presented no evidence of his alibi, and his girlfriend changed her testimony after she was threatened with prosecution. In 2013, a homicide detective found a box of records in his garage containing phone records that indicated Brown made a call exactly when he claimed. The file was never shared with Brown’s defense team at his original trial. District Attorney Devon Anderson said, “As a result of this review, our office agreed that Mr. Brown should receive relief in his case so that justice could be served. Following our office’s agreement that relief should be granted, today the Court of Criminal Appeals sent Mr. Brown’s case back to the trial court for a new trial.” Anderson said she will now review the case to determine whether to retry Brown or drop the charges.
(L. Falkenberg, “Appeals court resets murder trial after finding evidence withheld,” Houston Chronicle, November 5, 2014). See Innocence and Arbitrariness.
