Texas Prosecutors Accuse Former District Attorney of Egregious Misconduct in Innocence Case

At a recent press con­fer­ence in Texas, pros­e­cu­tors accused for­mer dis­trict attor­ney Charles Sebesta of hid­ing and tam­per­ing with evi­dence, and of threat­en­ing wit­ness­es in order to con­vict Anthony Graves in 1994. Graves was recent­ly exon­er­at­ed from death row and freed after 18 years of con­fine­ment for a crime he did not commit. 

Kelly Siegler, a spe­cial pros­e­cu­tor hired to review Graves’s case after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit over­turned his con­vic­tion, said Sebesta indict­ed a woman with­out evi­dence, fab­ri­cat­ed evi­dence, manip­u­lat­ed wit­ness­es and took advan­tage of vic­tims. Graves was con­vict­ed of being one of two men respon­si­ble for a fire that killed 6 peo­ple in their home. His co-defen­dant, Robert Earl Carter, admit­ted two weeks before his exe­cu­tion that he had lied about Graves’s involvement. 

Siegler said, ​“Charles Sebasta han­dled this case in a way that could best be described as a crim­i­nal jus­tice system’s night­mare.” Siegler also went on to say that what occurred in this case was the worst exam­ple of pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al mis­con­duct she had ever seen: ​“It’s a trav­es­ty, what hap­pened in Anthony Graves’ trial.”