A Texas courtroom is to blame for costing a wrongly convicted Texas man the compensation that was due to him for the 18 years he spent in Texas prison. If that was not bad enough the wrongfully convicted Texas man, Anthony Graves, spent 14 of those 18 years on Death Row. Graves was hoping to receive the $1.4 million in compensation that the state owes to him, but instead he might walk away with nothing only because the words "actual innocence" were not included in the judge's order that released him from prison. The Comptroller's office decided the omission results in Anthony Graves receiving zero dollars, even though the prosecutor, judge, and defense all agree that he is innocent.
The decision was made only because the Brenham prosecutor's office decided to dismiss the murder charges that were originally filed against Graves, instead of retrying him all over again and finding him innocent. The compensation law provides $80,000 per year in prison to claimants explicitly found innocent in a retrial or who are given a pardon. Sadly, neither is the case for Graves.On the other hand because they simply dropped the charges prosecutors could always retry Graves for the same crime if new evidence ever surfaces. Unfortunately, Double Jeopardy rules would not apply, because the original charges against him have dissappeared. Graves's lawyers are now pointing fingers at Burleson County District Attorney William Parham, who "declined to sign an order asking District Judge Reva Towslee Corbett to amend Graves' order of release to include the words 'actual innocence". Even though Parham said last month that he believes Graves is innocent, but claims that "actual innocence" carries no strict legal meaning.
Technically Graves could now sue under federal civil rights law on the grounds that he suffered cruel and unusual punishment. If he chose to do so the judge could rescind the order and add the words "actual innocence", but he has failed to make an attempt to act so far. The worst scenario about this case is that if Graves sues the state of Texas in civil court, tort laws limit any compensation to $200,000. That is a huge loss from the original $1.4 million he was due to receive.
What is also unfortunate is that Texas GOP Gov. Rick Perry will not be able to rectify the other judicial techinicality thats blocked Graves from the state compensation fund: Graves is no longer eligible for a pardon because he is no longer accused or convicted of a crime.
"It's obvious to us that under the spirit of the state legislation passed in 2009, Graves deserves compensation," The Houston Chronicle editorialized. "No one disputes the fact that the man is actually innocent. And the $1.4 million payment that he's due according to the state's formula hardly makes up for the loss of freedom for most of his adult life. The state has paid more than $30 million to 67 wrongfully imprisoned Texans. Graves should be the 68th." I agree with their conclusion because Graves did not only lose $1.4 million in compensation, but he also lost 18 years of his life that he could have used to become the best man he could possibly be. Instead of taking on the world head on and seeing the sights he was forced to endure the life of prison, while staring at the bars he was trapped behind.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelookout/20110216/ts_yblog_thelookout/texas-man-wrongly-put-away-for-decades-denied-compensation-after-legal-glitch
