A retrial date of Sept. 22 has been set for Jerry Hartfield, who has been held without a valid conviction in Texas for over 30 years. Hartfield was convicted of murder in 1977 and sentenced to death. His conviction was overturned in 1980 due to an improperly selected jury, and the appeals court ordered a new trial, but that was never held. Gov. Mark White attempted to commute his sentence in 1983, but without a conviction, the commutation was invalid. In 2013, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ruled that “The status of the judgment of conviction is that Petitioner is under no conviction or sentence.” A federal court called Texas’s defense of Hartfield’s unlawful incarceration “disturbingly unprofessional.” The new trial judge scheduled a July 2 hearing to consider a request from prosecutors to conduct psychological testing on Hartfield, who is described in court documents as “an illiterate fifth-grade dropout with an IQ of 51.” The Matagorda County District Attorney has offered Hartfield a deal to plead guilty, accept a life prison term and avoid a potential death sentence if he waives all rights to future appeals. Hartfield’s lawyers assert that his right to a speedy trial has been violated.
(“New trial set for man in Texas prison 30 years,” The Eagle, June 18, 2014). See Arbitrariness and Time on Death Row.
