Texas Appeals Court Vacates Conviction of Death-Row Prisoner Clinton Young, Whose Prosecutor was Secretly on the Payroll of the Judge Who Tried Him

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (TCCA) has vacat­ed the con­vic­tion of death-row pris­on­er Clinton Young, whose pros­e­cu­tor was also on the pay­roll of the judge who presided over the tri­al and decid­ed his tri­al court appeals.

In an unsigned opin­ion and order with no dis­sents, the TCCA on September 22, 2021 grant­ed Young’s peti­tion for a new tri­al. ​“Judicial and pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al mis­con­duct — in the form of an undis­closed employ­ment rela­tion­ship between the tri­al judge and the pros­e­cu­tor appear­ing before him — taint­ed Applicant’s entire pro­ceed­ing from the out­set,” the court wrote. ​“The evi­dence pre­sent­ed in this case sup­ports only one legal con­clu­sion: that Applicant was deprived of his due process rights to a fair tri­al and an impartial judge.”

Young was con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death by a Midland County jury in 2003 on charges that he had mur­dered two men for use of their vehi­cles dur­ing a 48-hour crime spree. He has long said he was framed for the mur­ders. Assistant District Attorney Ralph Petty was one of the pros­e­cu­tors in Young’s case, while at the same time serv­ing as a paid law clerk to state District Court Judge John Hyde. In that dual role, Petty con­duct­ed research and made legal rec­om­men­da­tions to the court on the same motions the pros­e­cu­tion had filed or were oppos­ing in the case. Neither Petty, nor Hyde, nor the Midland County District Attorney’s office dis­closed this con­flict to the defense.

Petty con­tin­ued in his dual role when the case advanced to the appeals stage, advo­cat­ing against Young’s chal­lenges to his con­vic­tion and sen­tence in the court­room while act­ing behind the scenes as a law clerk advis­ing the court on the res­o­lu­tion of those chal­lenges. Court doc­u­ments lat­er showed that, from 2002 until his retire­ment from the dis­trict attorney’s office in 2019, Petty received at least $132,900 in pay­ments from Midland County as a law clerk to mul­ti­ple dis­trict judges on cas­es he also was involved in prosecuting.

The TCCA’s order removed Young from death row and returned his case to the tri­al court for a deci­sion on whether to repros­e­cute him. Midland County District Attorney Laura Nodolf, who became DA in January 2017, has recused her office from fur­ther pro­ceed­ings in the case, say­ing ​“I don’t want there to be any appear­ance of a con­flict.” Dawson County District Attorney Philip Furlow, who took over the case in 2019 after Nodolf became aware of Petty’s con­flict, will make the deci­sion whether to retry Young or release him.

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 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. 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. 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 judge try­ing the case. Seventy-three of those defen­dants, includ­ing Young, were still in prison, with 21 serv­ing sen­tences of 50 years or more.

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. At least two senior mem­bers of the dis­trict attorney’s office were aware that Petty had been pros­e­cut­ing Young and rep­re­sent­ing the pros­e­cu­tion in oppos­ing Young’s appel­late chal­lenges to his con­vic­tion and death sen­tence while simul­ta­ne­ous­ly serv­ing as a paid judi­cial clerk and legal advis­er for the judge who was pre­sid­ing over the tri­al and subsequent trial-court.

“[T]he bias cre­at­ed by [Judge Hyde’s] employ­ment of Mr. Petty … deprived Mr. Young [of] due process of law,” Harle wrote. ​“The appear­ance of impro­pri­ety in Mr. Young’s case is clear[:] … the court’s law clerk was also the pros­e­cu­tor for the State.” 

Harle also sharply crit­i­cized Midland pros­e­cu­tors for their sup­pres­sion of evi­dence that Page had pro­vid­ed per­jured tes­ti­mo­ny against Young. ​“Ms. Nodolf knew that the inter­view need­ed to be dis­closed,” Harle wrote. ​“Yet, nei­ther Mr. Petty nor any­one in the office dis­closed [the Page] inter­view until after the Court of Criminal Appeals stayed Mr. Young’s exe­cu­tion when it autho­rized [review of] Mr. Young’s claim that Mr. Page tes­ti­fied false­ly at his trial.”

Facing immi­nent dis­bar­ment, Petty sur­ren­dered his law license. In an April 13, 2021 order pro­hibit­ing Petty from prac­tic­ing law in Texas, the Texas Supreme Court said the ter­mi­na­tion of Petty’s license was ​“in the best inter­est of the pub­lic [and] the profession.”