From an email from Charlie Baird, who is challenging Travis County DA Rosemary Lehmberg in the Democratic Primary:

“Why don’t you just hush?”

Last night, at a community meeting to discuss the shooting of Byron Carter, Jr. by an Austin Police Officer, that’s what my opponent said to me when I tried to expose some of the hypocrisy of the District Attorney’s office related to its grand jury process in high profile cases.

After the story about last night’s meeting came out in today’s Austin American-Statesman, my e-mail inbox and my voicemail have been filling up with folks contacting me about this. They simply cannot believe that our incumbent District Attorney is so frightened of her true record being exposed that she would stoop to such levels. They cannot believe that a public servant–who answers to the voters—would actually try and ‘hush’ debate about her job performance.

I could not agree more—and I’ll tell you something else: I will not ‘hush.’

Throughout my career as a judge on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, as a law professor, and as a judge on the 299th District Court here in Travis County, I’ve never been one to ‘hush’ when I see something wrong with our legal system.

Travis County does not have a criminal justice system that reflects the values and standards of the people of Travis County.

The average person in this county does not accept the fact that it has taken almost a full year for a grand jury to address a police officer shooting an unarmed civilian. The average person in this county does not agree with the fact that our DA’s office does not operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week like it does in other cities. The average person in this county does not agree with the fact that a state representative can simply get five years probation–and still keep his taxpayer funded pension and simply reimburse his campaign account–while a parent is tried as a felon for stealing diapers for their child.

Throughout the course of this campaign, I have talked about bringing justice that works to Travis County. Justice that works isn’t a justice system where critics of the system are told to ‘hush.’ It is a transparent system that takes input from the community and reflects the values of the people on whose behalf justice is administered. That’s the kind of justice system we’ll have when I’m District Attorney.

Sincerely,

Charlie Baird

A Williamson County jury  has sentenced a man convicted of capital murder to life without parole, instead of death. The rejection of a death sentence is part of a nationwide decline in death sentences, as well as a major decline in Texas. In 2011, only 8 people were sentenced to death in Texas. In the late 1990’s almost 40 people were sentenced to death each year. More and more people serving on juries are now rejecting death sentences and choosing life without parole. One reason why death sentences are in decline is that people who serve on juries are members of the public who have read about all the problems in the death penalty system.

Bobby Burks Jr. was convicted last week of the robbery and fatal shooting of 18-year-old Raul Vizueth Torres, whom he ambushed on a Williamson County road in April 2010.

To impose the death penalty, the jury had to decide that Burks poses a future danger to society and that there are no mitigating circumstances in his case. One of the prosecutors, Jane Starnes, said this morning in closing arguments that Burks’ criminal history showed he would be a future threat.

More from the Austin-American Statesman.

Recommends Court of Inquiry into Misconduct That Contributed to Morton’s Wrongful Murder Conviction

Contact:  Paul Cates, 212/364-5346, cell 917-566-1294 pcates@innocenceproject.org

(Austin, TX; February 10, 2012) —  Today a Texas Judge ruled that there is probable cause to believe that former Williamson County District Attorney Ken Anderson violated state criminal law by refusing to turn over evidence that contributed to the wrongful murder conviction of Michael Morton.  Judge Sid Harle remanded the case to the Chief Judge of the Texas Supreme Court with the recommendation that the state convene a court of inquiry to look into possible prosecutorialmisconduct that caused Morton to serve 25 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit. For more information, read full article.

“As Mr. Morton’s case so painfully illustrates, tragic consequences can result when prosecutors put aside their ethical obligations in their zeal to win convictions, yet far too often their misdeeds go unpunished,” said Barry Scheck, Co-Director of the Innocence Project, which is affiliated with Cardozo School of Law.  “Hopefully Judge Harle’s ruling today will serve as a reminder that no one is above the law.”

Today’s ruling comes in response to a report submitted by the Innocence Project asking the court to recommend a court of inquiry, a unique Texas legal procedure that can be initiated by a judge, to investigate whether Anderson  committed wrongdoing by refusing to turn over to the trial court as ordered evidence pointing to Morton’s innocence.  Morton always maintained that his wife’s murder was committed by a third party intruder.  The Innocence Project conducted depositions with key witnesses and uncovered other evidence showing that Anderson did not turn over the transcript of the victim’s mother telling lead investigator Sgt. Don Wood that Morton’s three-year-old son told her that Morton was not the attacker, a message to Wood dated two days after the murder reporting that what appeared to be the victim’s Visa card was recovered at a store in San Antonio, and a report from a neighbor observing someone staking out the Morton’s house before the murder.

Morton’s defense attorneys suspected all along that the prosecution was in possession of evidence pointing to Morton’s innocence because of the prosecution’s unusual decision not to call its lead investigator Sgt. Don Woods at trial.  The defense raised these concerns with the trial judge who ordered Anderson to turn over all of the reports by Woods so that he could conduct a review of the reports.  Although Anderson has repeatedly claimed to have no recollection of his prosecution of Morton, Anderson claimed for the first time in his deposition that his understanding of the trial judge’s order was that he turn over only those reports by Woods dealing with Morton’s statements.

This explanation contradicts all other participants’ understanding of the judge’s order and the judge’s own handwritten notes on the pre-trial hearing docket which state: “Court to conduct in camera [in chambers] inspection of report of officer Don Wood in connection with D[efendant’]s Brady motion.”

“As Mr. Morton has said, revenge is a natural instinct, but it’s not our goal here,” said Nina Morrison, a senior staff attorney with the Innocence Project. “Our goal is to ensure that no one has to suffer like Mr. Morton and the other people whose lives were destroyed in this case.”

Morton is represented by Scheck and Morrison at the Innocence Project, John Raley with Raley & Bowick in Houston, TX, and Gerry Goldstein and Cynthia Orr with Goldstein, Goldstein & Hilley in San Antonio, TX.

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Paul Cates

Director of Communications

Innocence Project, Inc. 40 Worth Street; Ste. 701 New York, New York 10013 212.364.5346 (tel) 212.364.5341 (fax) pcates@innocenceproject.org

www.innocenceproject.org

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In Texas, there are people on death row who never killed anyone but who were sentenced to death under the law of parties. In a famous English case, Derek Bentley was convicted as a party to murder, by the English law principle of “joint enterprise”, which is similar to the Law of Parties. There was a 45-year-long campaign to win Derek Bentley a posthumous pardon, which was granted partially in 1993, then completely in 1998. Here in Texas, we are working to end the death penalty for people sentenced to death under the Law of Parties.

Jeff Wood is one of the people on death row in Texas who never killed anyone but was sentenced to death under the law of parties. Having no prior criminal record, Wood was convicted and sentenced to die for killing a convenience store clerk during a January 1996 robbery in Kerrville, TX under the “Law of Parties.” Wood was not the shooter in this case and he can reasonably claim that he had no idea that a murder would occur during what he says was meant to be a gas station robbery. The actual shooter in this case — Daniel Earl Reneau — was executed by the state of Texas more than nine years ago.