Second Texas County Indicts Clinton Young in 2001 Murder After Court Throws Out Related Conviction and Death Sentence for Prosecutorial Misconduct

Texas pros­e­cu­tors have indict­ed for­mer death-row pris­on­er Clinton Young for a 21-year-old mur­der in one coun­ty after his con­vic­tion and death sen­tence for anoth­er mur­der alleged­ly com­mit­ted as part of the same crim­i­nal episode in anoth­er coun­ty was over­turned because a lead pros­e­cu­tor in that case also secret­ly act­ed as a paid law clerk to judges who presided over Young’s tri­al and state post-conviction appeals. 

On August 12, 2022, a spe­cial grand jury con­vened in Harrison County by the Texas Attorney General’s office indict­ed Young for cap­i­tal mur­der in the November 25, 2001 shoot­ing death of Doyle Douglas. That mur­der was part of the case pros­e­cu­tors pre­sent­ed against him in 2003 in his cap­i­tal mur­der tri­al for the shoot­ing death of Samuel Petrey in Midland County dur­ing what pros­e­cu­tors alleged was a two-day crime spree. Young (pic­tured with Clinton Young Foundation legal direc­tor Merel Pontier), who has long insist­ed that he was framed, was 18-years old at the time he alleged­ly par­tic­i­pat­ed in the crimes. 

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals vacat­ed Young’s con­vic­tion on September 22, 2021 fol­low­ing dis­clo­sure of the secret employ­ment rela­tion­ship between his pros­e­cu­tor, Ralph Petty, and the Midland County judges hear­ing his case, say­ing the arrange­ment ​“taint­ed Applicant’s entire pro­ceed­ing from the out­set” and vio­lat­ed ​“his due process rights to a fair tri­al and an impar­tial judge.” Young had also pre­sent­ed evi­dence that pros­e­cu­tors had pro­vid­ed undis­closed favors to wit­ness­es in exchange for self-serv­ing tes­ti­mo­ny that impli­cat­ed Young and that bal­lis­tics and gun residue evi­dence showed that their tes­ti­mo­ny against him was false.

Young was released from cus­tody January 21, 2022 pend­ing a deci­sion on whether to repros­e­cute him in Midland County. He was work­ing at a court approved job in Mississippi when he was arrest­ed on the Harrison County charges.

District Attorney Reid McCain told the Marshall News Messenger that the mur­ders were both part of ​“one long crime spree” dur­ing a 48-hour win­dow in 2001. Young alleged­ly ​“killed some­body here [in Harrison] and some­body in Midland,” McCain said. ​“He was nev­er arrest­ed or indict­ed here. He was arrest­ed and indict­ed in Midland.” The McCain pro­vid­ed no expla­na­tion for why the coun­ty delayed more than two decades in seek­ing an indictment. 

The Clinton Young Foundation, a non­prof­it orga­ni­za­tion that was ini­tial­ly cre­at­ed to raise aware­ness about his case and now focus­es more broad­ly on wrong­ful con­vic­tions in cap­i­tal mur­der cas­es, released a state­ment that ​“Clinton Young’s defense lawyers learned late Friday [August 12] that pros­e­cu­tors had obtained a sec­ond indict­ment, this time in Harrison coun­ty, for the same offense for which Clinton is already fac­ing tri­al in Midland coun­ty. … [H] his legal team will be address­ing the court in the near future about this lat­est effort by the pros­e­cu­tors to cause him to go back to jail, even though he spent twen­ty years unfairly incarcerated.”

Young came with­in eight days of exe­cu­tion in 2017, after the fed­er­al courts had denied his fed­er­al habeas cor­pus peti­tion. At that time, Petty filed a motion before post-con­vic­tion Judge Robert Moore — for whom Petty was also clerk­ing — seek­ing a war­rant for Young’s exe­cu­tion. Judge Moore set Young’s exe­cu­tion date for October 26, 2017. Young moved to with­draw the war­rant based upon alle­ga­tions that pros­e­cu­tors had obtained his con­vic­tion and death sen­tence with false or per­jured tes­ti­mo­ny from David Page, the prosecution’s key wit­ness, whom Young alleged was the actu­al killer. Young sup­port­ed his claim with recent­ly dis­cov­ered evi­dence that includ­ed gun­shot residue on Page’s gloves and affi­davits from four pris­on­ers that Page had bragged about com­mit­ting the killing and fram­ing Young. On October 18, 2017, the TCCA grant­ed Young a stay and ordered the tri­al court to con­duct a hear­ing on Young’s false-or-perjured-testimony claim.

While the death war­rant was still active, and with­out noti­fy­ing the defense, Petty filed a motion to grant use immu­ni­ty to Page. Midland County District Attorney Laura Nodolf then secret­ly inter­viewed Page, who admit­ted to false­ly impli­cat­ing Young. While Petty argued in court that Young should be exe­cut­ed, Nodolf with­held the infor­ma­tion about Page’s admis­sions. When Petty retired in 2019 and Nodolf was pro­cess­ing his retire­ment papers, she dis­cov­ered that he had been receiv­ing pay­ments from the coun­ty for work out­side of the DA’s office and dis­closed that evi­dence to Young’s lawyers. 

After con­duct­ing a hear­ing in which Petty invoked his con­sti­tu­tion­al priv­i­lege against self-incrim­i­na­tion, Senior Judge Sid Harle issued an opin­ion on April 26, 2021 in which he rec­om­mend­ed that the TCCA declare Young’s tri­al ​“null and void” and grant him a new tri­al. Harle blast­ed Petty and the Midland County District Attorney’s office for ​“shock­ing pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al mis­con­duct that destroyed any sem­blance of a fair tri­al” in Young’s case. 

A sub­se­quent USA Today inves­ti­ga­tion of court records found at least 355 cas­es in which Petty pros­e­cut­ed a defen­dant while also per­form­ing legal work for the judges try­ing the cas­es or pre­sid­ing over post-con­vic­tion appeals. Seventy-three of those defen­dants, includ­ing Young, were still in prison, with 21 serv­ing sen­tences of 50 years or more. Facing dis­ci­pli­nary action, Petty sur­ren­dered his law license and was for­mal­ly dis­barred in April 2021. 

Midland County pros­e­cu­tors moved to recuse them­selves from the case after Petty’s mis­con­duct came to light. District Attorney McCain said that his office would seek to recuse itself from the Harrison County. The Texas attor­ney gen­er­al will pros­e­cute both the Harrison and Midland cas­es. Defense coun­sel for Young are expect­ed to chal­lenge the Harrison County indict­ment and the state attor­ney general’s efforts to try Young in two counties.