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Location

Defendant(s)

Date of Alleged Crime

Coney was convicted of robbing a Safeway supermarket of $2,000.  He was sentenced to life imprisonment.  Police tortured Coney into confessing by crushing his fingers between the bars of his holding cell.  Judge David Wilson wrote that the former Angelina County sheriff, Leon Jones, and his deputies "were known for obtaining confessions by physical force." One of his tactics, he wrote, "was to get a prisoner's fingers on either side of a jail cell bar and squeeze those fingers until a prisoner confessed."  The lawyer who was called in to oversee Coney’s predetermined guilty plea stated, "That sheriff was the most terrible sheriff we ever had."  Coney was imprisoned for 42 years before his conviction was vacated in Aug. 2004.  Four of his fingers are still deformed.  (NY Times) (Google)

Vargas was convicted of murdering Louisa Garcia.  Both she and her husband, Gabrial Garcia, were beaten by a pair of robbers on Aug 21, 1925. Louisa died from her injuries several days later.  Both identified Vargas as one of the assailants.  Vargas had been an employee of the Garcias for some time prior to their assaults.  He was sentenced to life imprisonment.  An appeals court subsequently overturned Vargas' conviction.  On retrial, Vargas was again convicted, but this time he was sentenced to death.

A few hours before Vargas' scheduled execution, a look alike to Vargas confessed to the crime.  Vargas was pardoned and released in 1929.  Thirty-five years later, Vargas was awarded $20,000 by the state. (New Book of Lists)  [4/08]

Ruben Cantu was convicted of murdering Pedro Gomez, a Mexican laborer.  Gomez was robbed and shot to death while he was sleeping in a house under construction on Briggs Street in South San Antonio.  The house was right across the street from where Cantu, then 17, lived with his father.  Cantu was executed by lethal injection on Aug. 24, 1993.  Following Cantu’s execution, witnesses have come forward to exonerate him.

Juan Moreno, who was wounded during the attempted robbery and a key eyewitness in the case against Cantu, now says that it was not Cantu who shot him and that he only identified Cantu as the shooter because he felt pressured and was afraid of the authorities.  Moreno said that he twice told police that Cantu was not his assailant, but that the authorities continued to pressure him to identify Cantu as the shooter after Cantu was involved in an unrelated wounding of a police officer.  "The police were sure it was [Cantu] because he had hurt a police officer.  They told me they were certain it was him, and that's why I testified.”

David Garza, Cantu's co-defendant during his 1985 trial, signed a sworn affidavit saying that he allowed Cantu to be accused and executed even though he was not with him on the night of the killing.  Garza stated, "Part of me died when he died.  You've got a 17-year-old who went to his grave for something he did not do.  Texas murdered an innocent person."

Sam D. Millsap, Jr., the Bexar County District Attorney who charged Cantu with capital murder, said he never should have sought the death penalty in a case based on testimony from an eyewitness who identified a suspect only after police showed him Cantu's photo three separate times.  Miriam Ward, forewoman of the jury that convicted Cantu, noted, "With a little extra work, a little extra effort, maybe we'd have gotten the right information. The bottom line is, an innocent person was put to death for it. We all have our finger in that."  (Houston Chronicle)  [1/07]

Foster drove a car that stopped to allow an occupant, DeWayne Dillard, an opportunity to get out and talk to a female (later learned to be a stripper) in a stopped car.  Dillard shot her male friend, Michael T. LaHood, Jr., allegedly in self-defense, but the prosecutor argued robbery.  According to Dillard, Foster in the car 80 feet away “appeared surprised and panicked” and started to drive away, but Dillard told him to stop.  According to Texas “law of parties,” the jury had to agree that Foster had intended or conspired to participate in the alleged robbery in order to convict him of Capital Murder, but the trial judge blatantly disregarded this law in his instructions to the jury.  Foster was convicted and sentenced to death in 1997.  (Info)  [3/05]

Banks was convicted of murdering 16-year-old Richard Wayne Whitehead and sentenced to death.  The U.S. Supreme Court granted him a stay of execution 10 minutes before his scheduled execution in 2003.  In 2004, the same court overturned his death sentence because of prosecutorial misconduct.  According to Banks' attorney, "The state allowed its key witnesses to repeatedly lie to the court and jury, and urged the jury to trust without question all the perjured testimony."  Texas has doggedly defended the conviction on the Kafkaesque procedural ground that Banks' lawyers discovered the hidden illegalities of the prosecution too late to raise them in court.  (TruthInJustice) (TIJ2) (ODR)  [11/05]

Anthony Graves was sentenced to death after an admitted mass murderer fingered him as an accomplice in order to protect his wife from prosecution.  In 1992, Robert Earl Carter, a 27-year-old prison guard, was under pressure from his ex-girlfriend, Lisa Davis, to increase child support for their son Jason.  He was already supporting his wife, Theresa, and their son, Ryan.  Anger over increasing child support payments does not fully explain Carter’s subsequent actions, but it is the only motive that has been suggested.  Carter, reportedly, was a kind, gentle, and pleasant man, so presumably something within him snapped.

In the early morning hours of Aug. 18, Carter armed himself with a .22 caliber pistol, a knife, and a hammer and drove to Lisa’s house in Sommerville, Texas.  Carter beat Lisa’s 45-year-old mother, Bobby Joyce Davis, unconscious with the hammer, then fatally stabbed her with the knife.  He then stabbed his four-year-old son, Jason, and shot Lisa’s sister, 16-year-old Nicole.  Lisa, fortunately, was not at home.  Carter then stabbed to death Lisa’s other daughter, 9-year-old D’Nitra.  He finished by stabbing two of Lisa’s nieces, Brittany, 6, and Lea’Erin, 5.  In an effort to cover his tracks he went back to his car, got some gasoline and used it to set the house on fire.  In total, Carter killed six people.

Carter was careless in setting fire to the house and severely burned himself.  Four days later he attended the victims’ funeral.  At the services police noticed his burns and bandages and took him in for questioning.  He was soon charged with the murders.  Police wanted him to name accomplices.  There was evidence on the victims of bludgeoning as well as knife and gunshot wounds, so police may have thought that the use of multiple weapons implied there was more than one killer.  They may also have felt cheated in only being able to prosecute one perpetrator for six murders.

Police pressured Carter to name an accomplice and promised not to implicate his wife in the crime, if he would name someone.  In response, Carter eventually named his wife’s cousin, Anthony Graves, a man he barely knew.  Graves had briefly met Carter, but did not know any of the victims.  At Graves’ grand jury hearing, Carter told the jury that he had committed the murders alone and that Graves was not involved.  Yolanda Mathis, Graves’ 22-year-old girlfriend testified that she had been with Graves at his mother’s house the entire night of the murders along with Graves’ brother, Arthur, 22, and his sister, Dietrich, 24.  The prosecution lacked any physical evidence against Graves.  Despite the absence of any case, DA Charles Sebesta persuaded the grand jury to indict Graves for capital murder.

Following the grand jury hearing, the DA arrested Carter’s wife, apparently to secure Carter’s cooperation.  She was released two months later.  Over two years later, on the eve of Graves’ trial, the DA visited the already convicted Carter in his cell and threatened to prosecute his wife if Carter did not testify against Graves.  At trial Carter did as he was told.  He, however, recanted his testimony following the trial, always maintained that state, and reiterated Graves innocence in his last statement prior to his 2000 execution.

At Graves’ trial, immediately before his alibi witness, Yolanda Mathis, was to take the stand, the DA had the judge excuse the jury and then stated in open court that Mathis was a suspect and that if she chose to testify to what she knew about this case, the state intended to indict her for capital murder as a co-conspirator.  Graves’ attorney immediately left the courtroom to tell Mathis.  Mathis fled the courthouse in fear and never testified.  Graves’ inexperienced lawyer did nothing to counter this brazen intimidation of a defense witness.  In closing, the DA mocked the defense by stating, “Where is this alibi witness that Mr. Graves claims to have been with? Why wasn't she here to testify?"  Graves did have his brother give alibi testimony, but testimony from a blood relative is not considered as reliable as that from an unrelated person.  Graves was convicted of the murders and sentenced to death.

In Mar. 2006, the federal Fifth Circuit Court overturned Graves’ conviction due to the withholding of evidence by prosecutors.  As of early 2007, the state is appealing the ruling and a new trial has not been scheduled.  (Cell Door Magazine) (CBS News)  (JD34 p3)  [3/07]

Herrera was sentenced to death for murdering two police officers, David Rucker and Enrique Carrisalez.  The murders occurred at separate locations along a highway between Brownsville and Los Fresnos.  Enrique Hernandez, Carrisalez’ patrol car partner, identified Herrera.  Hernandez also said Herrera was only person in the car that they stopped.  Carrisalez, who did not die until 9 days after he was shot, identified Herrera from a single photo.  A license plate check showed that the stopped car belonged to Herrera’s live in girlfriend.

In 1984, after Herrera’s brother Raul was murdered, Raul’s attorney came forward and signed an affidavit stating that Raul told him he had killed Rucker and Carrisalez.  A former cellmate of Raul also came forward and signed a similar affidavit.  Raul’s son, Raul Jr., who was nine at the time of the killings, signed a third affidavit.  It averred that he had witnessed the killings.  Jose Ybarra, Jr., a schoolmate of the Herrera brothers, signed a fourth affidavit.  Ybarra alleged that Raul Sr. told him in 1983 that he had shot the two police officers.  Herrera alleged that law enforcement officials were aware of Ybarra’s statement and had withheld it in violation of Brady v. Maryland.  Armed with these affidavits, Herrera petitioned for a new trial, but was denied relief in state courts.  One court did dismiss Herrera’s Brady claim due to lack of evidence.  Herrera’s appeal eventually reached the U.S. Supreme Court, where it was argued in Oct. 1992.

In Jan. 1993, the Supreme Court ruled that Herrera's actual innocence was not a bar to his execution.  He had to show that there were procedural errors in his trial in order to gain relief.  Justice Rehnquist wrote that the "presumption of innocence disappears" once a defendant has been convicted in a fair trial.  Dissenting Justice Blackmun wrote:  "The execution of a person who can show that he is innocent comes perilously close to simple murder."  Herrera was executed four months after the ruling on May 12, 1993.  (Herrera v. Collins)  [1/07]

“Susie” Mowbray was convicted of murdering her husband, J. William "Bill" Mowbray, Jr.  After incessantly protesting her innocence, she was granted a retrial in 1996 by a Texas appeals court that ruled prosecutors concealed a crucial report on the blood splatter evidence that supported Mowbray's innocence.  When retried in 1998, forensic evidence supported the defense claim that Mowbray's husband committed suicide while she was asleep next to him in bed.  Dr. Herbert MacDonnell testified that it was likely Bill Mowbray committed suicide.  Mowbray was acquitted.  [10/05]

Paul Richard Colella was accused of murdering David Taylor and Michael Lavexphere.  It was alleged that he murdered them because he wrongly believed they had raped his wife.  At trial, the prosecution argued that deaths occurred at 2 a.m., because Colella was known to be 240 miles away at 6 a.m.  However, death certificates that were not turned over at the time of trial, place the time of death for both men at 6 a.m.  There were other case discrepancies.  Colella was sentenced to death, but later escaped death row by agreeing to plead to two non-capital counts of murder and accept a 20-year sentence.  Colella still maintains his innocence.  (Info)  [5/05]

Jack Warren Davis was convicted of the sexual assault, mutilation, and murder of Kathie Campolo Balonis, 24.  Balonis' body was found in her apartment at the Oaks complex on Landa Street in New Braunfels. Davis lived and worked at the apartment complex as a maintenance man.  The conviction was based on the forensic testimony of Fred Zain.  Zain testified that some blood found under Balonis' body came from Davis.  In a 1992 evidentiary hearing to examine prosecutorial misconduct in Davis’ case, Zain changed his testimony and acknowledged that the blood came from the victim.  Davis’ conviction was vacated and he was released in 1992.  Davis later received a $600,000 settlement from Bexar County.  [7/05]

Randall Dale Adams was sentenced to death for the murder of police officer Robert Wood.  Evidence in the case pointed to David Ray Harris.  However, Harris was for some reason an unsatisfactory suspect to police.  Police may not have wished to charge him because he was 16-years-old and under Texas law could not be sentenced to death.  At Adams' trial, Harris named Adams as the shooter, and Harris was soon back on the streets.  A prosecution psychologist, Dr. James Grigson, told Adam's jury that Adams would remain an ongoing menace if kept alive.  Grigson was known as Dr. Death, after having testified in more than 100 trials that resulted in death sentences.

In 1985, a young filmmaker, Errol Morris, came to Dallas to work on a documentary about Grigson.  When he met Adams, Morris thought he was an unlikely killer and decided to take a closer look.  Morris soon discovered that Harris had been compiling a criminal record of some magnitude.  Morris discovered other problems with several witnesses who testified at Adams' trial.  Because of such evidence, Adams was granted a hearing for a retrial.  At the hearing in 1989, David Harris admitted that he was the killer.  An appeals court overturned Adams' conviction, holding that prosecutor Douglas D. Mulder withheld a statement a witness gave to the police that cast doubt on her credibility and allowed her to give perjured testimony.  Further, the court found that after Adams' attorney discovered the statement late in Adams' trial, Mulder falsely told the court that he did not know the witness' whereabouts.  Adams' conviction was overturned and the prosecution dropped charges.  His case is profiled in the documentary "The Thin Blue Line."  (NL)  [1/06]

Brown was sentenced to life in prison for the robbery and murder of Rubin Danziger, a Dallas fur-store owner.  The crime occurred in Danziger's store, Fine Furs By Rubin, in Preston Center on Northwest Highway.  After the getaway car used by the two female robbers was discovered, police found a car rental agreement in it signed by a Joyce Ann Brown.  However, the car had been rented to a different Joyce Ann Brown.  Police and prosecutors discovered the error before trial, but proceeded with the prosecution anyway.  The victim's wife, Ala, had identified Rene Michelle Taylor, as the robber who shot her husband, and Brown as her accomplice.  Taylor later revealed that another woman, Lorraine Germany, was her accomplice.  Germany reportedly has a startling resemblance to Brown.  Investigation also showed that a jailhouse witness, Martha Jean Bruce, had lied to convict Brown.  Brown was featured on "60 Minutes" and was freed in Nov. 1989.  (CM) (NL) (Google)  [5/08]

Woodard was convicted of the murder of Beverly Ann Jones, 21, a woman he had dated for 7 months.  Jones' stepfather said Woodard had come to their home in the early morning of the day of her disappearance. Neighbors said they had heard the couple fighting.  Several days before Woodard's trial, authorities learned of three other witnesses had seen Jones shortly before she died.  The witnesses, Ed Mosley, Theodore Blaylock and Eddie Woodard, told investigators she had gotten into a car with several men at a 7-Eleven. Mosley and Blaylock couldn't identify the men or their car. It was the last time Jones was seen alive.  This information was withheld from Woodard's defense.  Jones' body was found in the Trinity River bottoms in south Dallas. She had been sexually assaulted.

In Dec. 2007, DNA test results cleared Woodard.  Jones' stepfather was re-interviewed and recanted his trial testimony that Woodard had come to his house.  Woodard was set free in Apr. 2008, after serving 27 years in prison.  Woodard is the longest serving inmate in the United States to be released as a result of DNA testing.  (Google)  [5/08]

Dallas County, TX

Larry Fuller

April 26, 1981

Fuller, a decorated Vietnam veteran, was convicted of aggravated rape and sentenced to 50 years in prison.  The victim was attacked and raped in her bedroom.  When police showed her photographs of potential suspects two days later, she did not identify Fuller.  Several days later, police showed her a second group of photos. The photograph of Fuller was the only one that appeared in both arrays.  Although the victim said her attacker did not have facial hair, and Fuller was pictured with a full beard, she identified him and he was arrested.  Fuller had an alibi that was corroborated and had no record of sex crimes.  He was paroled in 1999, but returned to prison in 2005 for a parole violation.  In 2006, he became the 10th Dallas County man in five years freed by DNA testing.  (IP) (NBC5)  [12/06]

Steven Charles Phillips was convicted of raping a woman and sexually assaulting two others during a burglary.  The assailant’s face was partially covered during the attacks.  However, the rape victim identified Phillips and spoke at length about her assailant’s “striking blue eyes.”  Other women also told authorities that they remembered the assailant's blue eyes.  However, Phillips’ eyes are green.  Phillips also pleaded guilty to eight additional charges for sex crimes that police said were committed by the same man who committed the rape.  A defense attorney said that after being convicted of the initial charges, Phillips gave up and pleaded to the additional charges.

In 2007, DNA evidence has cleared him of the charges for which he was tried, making him the 14th person in Dallas County to be exonerated by DNA testing.  A court will have to decide if the same evidence also clears him of the other charges that he pleaded to.  (Dallas News)  [10/07]

Keith E. Turner was convicted of a rape, because a victim identified him visually and by his voice.  Turner had provided an alibi.  DNA tests exonerated Turner in 2005.  (IP171)  [9/06]

Giles was convicted of participating in a gang rape with two other men.  Police knew before Giles’ trial that the real perpetrator was a teenager with an almost identical name, James Earl Giles.  He lived across the street from the rape victim.  Police withheld two sworn statements identifying him.  James Earl Giles died of cancer in 2000.  James Curtis Giles was released in 1993 and is on parole until 2013.  He must register as a sex offender.  In early 2007, prosecutors are joining with defense attorneys to get the wrong James Giles cleared.  (Dallas Morning News)  [3/07]

Geter, a black engineer, spent his lunch hour reading books and feeding ducks in the park.  His lunch hour activities were so suspicious that he attracted the attention of a local busybody who reported him to the police.  Because of this report, Geter's photo was passed around as a possible crime suspect in the local town (Greenville) and in other towns.  Geter was convicted of robbing $615 from a Kentucky Fried Chicken outlet in Balch Springs.  Five eyewitnesses testified that he was the robber.  Geter's coworkers testified that he could not have committed an afternoon robbery 50 miles away in Balch Springs, because he was at work in Greenville.  Geter was nevertheless convicted by a jury and sentenced to life imprisonment.

Geter's mostly white co-workers were outraged and they raised money for him and helped to garner press attention for his case including a "60 Minutes" segment.  The actual robber was eventually captured and confessed to seven armed robberies, including the Balch Springs robbery.  [7/05]

Waller was convicted of raping a 12-year-old boy, identified as Jay S.  Jay initially described his assailant as a black man, 5 foot 8 inches tall and weighing 150 lbs.  He said a red bandanna concealed his assailant’s face.  Later that day at a 7-Eleven, Jay heard his assailant’s voice, and turned to see Waller.  Waller is nearly 6 foot 4 inches tall and was heavy.  Waller’s family was the only black family living in Jay’s apartment complex.  At trial, Waller presented witnesses stating he was home at the time of the assault, but Waller was convicted anyway.  Waller was paroled in 1993.  DNA tests exonerated him of the crime in 2007, making him the 12th person in Dallas County to be exonerated by DNA tests.  (NY Times)  [2/07]

Good was convicted of rape after being identified by the victim and her daughter.  Serological testing of the crime evidence matched Good, although it also matched a significant percentage of the white male population.  Good was paroled in 1993.  On parole, he was forced to live under strict sex-offender restrictions.  A neighbor posted fliers around his home that warned residents that he was a rapist.  Good maintained his innocence, but was constantly pressured to admit his guilt during required role-playing therapy sessions.  A parole officer wrote that he would never make progress until he admitted his guilt.  After being jailed for violating his parole in 2002, Good applied for DNA testing, which exonerated him in 2004.  (IP153)  [10/05]

Miller was convicted of rape based on the victim’s identification of his house and car.  In 2006, DNA tests exonerated Miller of the crime.  (IP)  [12/06]

Eugene Ivory Henton was charged with sexual assault.  In return for pleading guilty to the crime, he was sentenced to four years in prison, of which he served 18 months. Despite his guilty plea, DNA tests exonerated Henton of the crime in 2005.  (IP)  [1/07]

Pope was convicted of breaking into an apartment and raping its inhabitant.  The victim failed to identify Pope in a photo lineup, but identified him over a month later in a live lineup.  The prosecution argued that a knife found in Pope's car was similar to one stolen from the victim's apartment.  Messages left on the victim's answering machine after the crime were also said to match Pope's voiceprint.  DNA tests exonerated Pope in 2001 and implicated a convicted rapist that was in another Texas prison.  (IP097)  [10/05]

Fountain was convicted of rape after being identified by the victim even though he had an alibi witness at trial.  Gov. Rick Perry pardoned him in 2003 after DNA tests exonerated him of the crime.  [1/07]

Billy James Smith was convicted of aggravated sexual assault while using and exhibiting a deadly weapon in 1987.  His conviction was based in part on an identification made by the victim’s boyfriend, who did not witness the attack.  Smith’s sister testified at trial, corroborating his alibi.  Smith was sentenced to life in prison.  DNA tests eventually exonerated Smith and he was released in 2006.  (IP)  [1/07]

Wallis was convicted of raping a woman after an informant noticed that he had a tattoo similar to one described by the victim as being on her assailant.  The victim identified Wallis, but DNA tests exonerated him in 2006.  (IP)  [1/07]

Karage was convicted of murdering his 14-year-old Cambodian girlfriend, Nary Na.  Na was last seen at the Minyard's grocery store at Garland and Peavy roads, seven hours before her fully clothed body was found in a ravine behind the Casa Linda Shopping Center.  DNA testing at the time of the trial did not match Karage, but this was consistent with the prosecutor's theory that Karage had found his girlfriend with another man and killed her in a jealous rage.  A review of trial transcripts and witness statements reveals somewhat shockingly that Karage's conviction rested solely on this speculated motive.  There was no other evidence.  In 2004, DNA test results were run through a federal database and were found to match Keith Jordan, a man convicted of a similar crime.  Gov. Rick Perry pardoned Karage in 2005.  (IP170)

Routier and two of her sons were attacked by an intruder in their Rowlett home at 5801 Eagle Drive.  The two sons died.  The prosecution claimed the attack was staged and convicted Routier of murders.  An investigator took steps to steer the investigation away from his son, who is now in prison for other violent crimes.  Prosecutors and the courts continue to stonewall against turning over or testing evidence that will prove her innocence.  (JD01)  (www.fordarlieroutier.org)  (www.justicefordarlie.net) (ODR)  [6/05]

After a jury deadlocked on a verdict, Tuley convicted himself of sexual assault by pleading guilty.  Tuley claimed he only pleaded guilty in exchange for a 10-year sentence of community supervision.  He had run out of money to pay a lawyer for a second trial and he faced a long prison sentence if convicted.  In addition, he had already spent 10 months in jail awaiting his first trial.  Tuley was later imprisoned for violating the terms of his community supervision.  His accuser later recanted her story and said she made it up because she did not like Tuley and his relationship with her mother.  Tuley was cleared in 2002.  [7/05]

Gossett was convicted of aggravated sexual assault and sentenced to 50 years imprisonment.  The victim identified him as her assailant.  She said he had a map of Texas ring on his finger, but a search of his residence turned up no such ring.  A videotape recovered from a convenience store showed Gossett shortly after the attack, wearing clothing that was inconsistent with the victim’s description.  Gossett was released in 2007, after DNA test results proved his innocence.  [2/07]

Williams was convicted of drug charges on the basis of fake evidence manufactured by a ring of Dallas police officers.  These officers were shaking down people for money.  Williams was sentenced to life imprisonment.  Gov. Rick Perry pardoned him in 2002.  [7/05]

For reasons unknown, Reyos confessed in New Mexico to police that he had killed a Catholic priest, Father Patrick Ryan, during a homosexual tryst in a West Texas motel.  However, every other piece of testimony controverted his guilt.  Reyos had an airtight alibi:  He was 200 miles away when the priest was bludgeoned to death.  Reyos could prove his alibi with time-stamped receipts, a speeding ticket, and even an eyewitness.  Father Ryan was a much beloved priest, and Reyos' allegations that the father had repeatedly solicited young men for sex shocked and offended the jurors.  Reyos was convicted and sentenced to 38 years of imprisonment.  The state's attorney responding to Reyos' appeal made himself a timeline of the crime and realized that Reyos could not have committed the crime.  The attorney put in a pardon request but it was turned down.  Reyos was paroled in 2003.  (AJ) (Houston Chronicle)

Thomas was convicted of the rape of an employee at a Waxahachie Tiger Mart.  The victim identified Thomas as her assailant.  DNA tests exonerated Thomas in 2001.  (IP098)  [7/05]

Federico M. Macias was convicted of hacking to death Robert and Naomi Haney with a machete during a home invasion.  Most of the goods stolen from the murdered couple were retrieved from the yard of 19-year-old Pedro Luevanos.  Luevanos implicated Macias as his accomplice and as the actual killer.  In return Luevanos received a 25-year-sentence while Macias was sentenced to death.  Macias' lawyer failed to call alibi witnesses who would have placed him elsewhere at the time of the crime and to present evidence that the corroborating witnesses had not in fact been at Macias' home on the day of the murders.  Macias' conviction was reversed in 1992 for ineffective assistance of counsel.  A grand jury then refused to re-indict him because of a lack of evidence.  (NL)  [7/05]

Moon was convicted of three counts of sexual assault in part because he was identified by the victim.  DNA tests later exonerated Moon and revealed that the forensic evidence presented at his trial was false.  Moon served 16 years of a 75-year sentence.  (IP154)  [6/05]

Tony Ford was convicted of shooting four members of the Murillo family, killing one of them.  The shootings occurred during the course of a robbery.  The victims identified Ford at trial, but much evidence indicates their identification is mistaken.  Ford was scheduled for execution in Dec. 2005.  Eight days before his execution, a judge issued a stay so that DNA tests can be performed.  It is expected that these tests will find that the victims' blood is on the clothes of the person believed to be the real shooter.  (JD30 p4) (ODR)  [3/08]

Henry Watkins Skinner, also known as Hank, was convicted of bludgeoning to death his live-in girlfriend, Twila Busby, and stabbing to death her two sons, Randy Busby and Scooter Caler.  Hank was sentenced to death.  The murders occurred at 801 East Campbell Ave. in Pampa.  Hank, then 31, had been drinking earlier in the evening and passed out after taking codeine to which he was severely allergic.  A friend, Howard Mitchell, arrived to take Hank and Twila to a New Year’s Eve Party at 9:30 p.m., but he could not rouse Hank.

At the party Twila, 40, was stalked by her drunk uncle, Robert Donnell, a big man, who made rude sexual advances.  Twila became agitated and asked Mitchell to take her home.  She arrived home between 11:00 and 11:15 p.m.  Shortly afterwards she was bludgeoned to death.  Her younger son Randy was stabbed to death in his bed.  Her older son, Elwin “Scooter” Caler, 22, was also stabbed, but managed to escape to a neighbor’s yard where he collapsed on the porch.  He never regained consciousness.  The neighbor found him and called police at 11:59 p.m.

It is believed that after the attacks, Scooter revived Hank and led him outside, but left him in an alley.  Hank suffered a cut on his right palm that night, possibly from stumbling.  Other than that possibility, Hank suffered no noticeable harm from the attacks, either because Scooter scared off the intruder(s), or the intruder(s) were only interested in attacking Twila and her sons, and Hank, being comatose, posed no threat.  Hank managed to find his way to a different neighbor’s house, the home of Andrea Joyce Reed, where he was arrested three hours later.  Following his arrest he was unable to stand on his own for police photos.  After being photographed, he was then taken to a hospital to give blood samples.  The samples, taken six-and-a-half hours after the murders, showed a blood alcohol level of .21, more than twice the legal limit for intoxication.  Tests also revealed high levels of codeine in him.  Hank could not have drunk alcohol at his neighbor’s house as she was a recovering alcoholic and did not allow it in her house.

Autopsy results of Twila showed that she suffered a skull fracture that required great manual strength of someone wielding a club to inflict.  Hank, besides being in a stuporous state at the time of the murders, was only 5’9” 140 lbs. and had a handicapped right arm.  His right hand was too handicapped for him to have inflicted the strangulation injury found on Twila.  Whoever strangled her was strong enough to inflict bone fracture.  In contrast to Hank, Scooter towered over him at 6’6” 265 lbs. and was in good health.  Yet allegedly Hank was able to manually injure him and two other victims, without receiving any defensive wounds or bruises, aside from the possibility of his palm cut.

At the time of the murders, a witness, Ronnie Campbell, then in the county jail, phoned the house.  Scooter answered and Ronnie heard an unidentified man who was not Hank speaking with Twila.  On speaking to the frightened Scooter, he asked to speak to Twila but was told that she was speaking to "some guy."  Ronnie claimed that he heard Twila "screaming hysterically in the background."  Ronnie’s jailer confirmed that Ronnie reported the conversation to her shortly after it occurred.  Hank’s appointed attorney called neither Ronnie nor the jailer at trial.

The neighbor, Ms. Reed, who aided Hank after the murders, was threatened with being charged as an accessory after the fact and with harboring a fugitive.  She was also threatened with having her children taken away.  In response, her trial testimony made it seem as though Hank forced his way into her home and that he was physically capable of committing the murders.  She later felt remorse and signed an affidavit saying he did not force his way in and that he was unable to stand on his own.  She said that she had to practically carry him wherever he went in her house.

After Twila left the New Year's Eve party, her uncle, Robert Donnell, reportedly left 5 minutes later.  There was some evidence that Twila was raped.  She was found with her pants unzipped and her blouse was pushed up over her abdomen.  Although vaginal samples was preserved in a rape kit, police refused to test it.  Donnell's truck was identified by a neighborhood boy as being present at the time of the murders.  Following the murders Donnell thoroughly cleaned his truck, replaced the carpets, and repainted the exterior.  He was never questioned by the police.  He was later killed in a drunken auto accident.

Hank had been something of an irritant to the district attorney’s office and to the sheriff’s office.  He was an outspoken advocate of prisoner’s rights and had participated in inmate lawsuits.  He had many interviews in the Pampa newspaper on the way the prior sheriff, Jimmy Free, treated inmates in the jail and violated their rights.  He was previously arrested on a bogus burglary charge, but by demanding a rare examining hearing, got the matter dropped before he could be indicted.  Hank is still imprisoned as of 2007.  (www.hankskinner.org) (ODR)  [4/07]

Max Soffar was convicted of murdering Arden Alane Felsher, 17, Tommy Lee Temple, 17, and Stephen Allen Sims, 25, during a robbery of the Fair Lanes Windfern Bowling Center.  He was sentenced to death.  Soffar, 24, a mentally impaired individual, confessed to the murders after hours of police interrogation.  No physical evidence connected him to the crime.  A fourth victim, Gregory Garner, survived a gunshot wound to the head but failed to identify Soffar as a participant in the robbery.

Soffar had been caught in neighboring Galveston County with a stolen motorcycle and was looking for a plea deal by claiming to know something about the famous murders that occurred three weeks before.  He also wanted to get revenge against his friend, Latt Bloomfield, who resembled a police sketch of the murderer.  Both Soffar and Bloomfield had agreed to rob their parents’ houses, but Bloomfield reneged after they burglarized the home of Soffar’s parents.

Soffar first spoke only with Bruce Clawson, a local detective that he knew.  Clawson got Soffar to talk to Houston detectives.  Soffar made three statements to detectives that grew in detail during the three days he was interviewed.  Neither Clawson, nor his brother Mike, who was a policeman in the area, believed the statements.  Clawson said, "I specifically recall believing that Max's responses to these questions (posed by Houston detectives) were vague and unconvincing."  "Max certainly said nothing during the interrogations I witnessed which indicated to me that Max knew things about the bowling-alley murders that only a person involved in the offense would know."  Soffar soon disavowed his statements and later wrote that they were the result of relentless and pushy Houston detectives.

The federal Fifth Circuit Court overturned Soffar’s conviction in 2004.  It cited ineffective representation by Soffar’s trial attorney, Joe Cannon, the famous “sleeping lawyer.”  Cannon did not even call surviving victim Garner as a witness.  The court also cited at least 10 major discrepancies between Soffar’s confession and Garner’s recollection of events.  Garner, for instance, said there was only one robber, but Soffar said Bloomfield accompanied him.  Garner said the robber wore nothing to hide his face, while Soffar said he and Bloomfield covered their heads.

Garner said the robber gained entrance to the bowling alley, which had just closed, by feigning car trouble and asking the manager if he could come in to fill a plastic jug with water.  Soffar said he and Bloomfield simply walked through an unlocked front door.  Crime-scene photos showed a plain jug on the counter, but a cleaning crew washed it before police realized its possible significance.  Soffar said he and Bloomfield had burglarized the bowling alley the night before to gain more knowledge of the place.  The burglary had been reported in television accounts of the crime.  However, police had already arrested some area youths in connection with the burglary before Soffar was arrested.

Prosecutors contend Soffar made an admission that corroborates his presence in the bowling alley.  Soffar said that Bloomfield fired a warning shot into the floor.  That shot, they said, accounted for a bullet hole in the carpet that did not match up with an exit wound from one of the bodies.  However, detailed ballistics indicates the carpet hole came from a fragment of an exit wound bullet that shattered after it hit the cement floor under the carpet.  In addition, for there to have been a warning shot, five shots would had to have been fired.  Garner recalled only four.  Soffar was retried in 2006, reconvicted, and sentenced to death.  (DP News) (Info)  [2/07]

Guerra, a Mexican national, was sentenced to death for the murder of James D. Harris, a Houston police officer.  Harris was killed during a routine traffic stop.  The gun that killed Harris was found on Roberto Carrasco some hours later, after Carrasco was killed in a shootout with police.  Guerra, a 20-year-old acquaintance of Carrasco, was riding in the car with Carrasco when Harris was killed.  Police theorized that Guerra shot Harris and later traded guns with Carrasco.  Guerra’s fingerprints were not found on the gun, but five eyewitnesses identified him as the shooter.

Beginning in 1994, evidence emerged that police and prosecutors had systematically intimidated and manipulated the eyewitnesses into identifying Guerra as Harris’ killer.  During a federal appeal, these witnesses testified that they had perjured themselves because they feared police and prosecutors.  Guerra’s conviction was overturned in Nov. 1994.  The state delayed justice by appealing the ruling, but ultimately released Guerra in Apr. 1997, as they had no intimidated witnesses with which to retry him.  Upon release, Guerra returned to Mexico where he was the subject of a book, a feature film and at least one popular song and music video.  (NC Reporter)  [2/07]

Robinson, a black man, was convicted of raping a white University of Houston student. He was picked up because the victim said her assailant was a black man wearing a plaid shirt. The victim, who was white, also said her assailant had a mustache, smelled of cigarette smoke, had no money, and that he apologized to her, saying he had just gotten out of prison and had not had sex in a long time. Robinson had no mustache, did not smoke, had $169 on him, and had never been to prison. The victim identified Robinson as her assailant when he was brought to her and at trial. Robinson’s fingerprints did not match those taken from the crime scene

Robinson was paroled after serving 10 years of his 27-year sentence. He then worked to pay for his own DNA testing and hired a lawyer who had him officially exonerated. Because he was a well thought of college graduate who served two years in the Army, a state senator employed Robinson as the “poster child” for a proposed Texas law to increase the compensation for the wrongly convicted to $25,000 per year of incarceration. The law passed and Robinson was awarded $250,000 under it.  (IP077) (Frontline)  [5/08]

Robert Angleton, also known as Bob, was a bookie who took bets on sporting events.  He was charged with murdering his 46-year-old wife, Doris.  Following the murder, Bob told police that he suspected his brother Roger was the killer.  Despite Roger’s checkered past, Bob had employed him in 1989.  He fired him less than a year later.  After being fired, Roger felt Bob owed him $200,000 and even tried to rob him of it at gunpoint.  Roger then threatened to put Bob out of business, by reporting him to the IRS.  Bob ignored him, but Roger started making phone calls to customers, posing as an IRS agent.

After realizing that Roger could ruin his bookmaking business, Bob started paying him $2500 a month.  While the payoffs worked for a while, in 1997 Roger demanded even more money.  Bob says he received a letter from Roger saying if he didn’t get the money, "I will hurt you in a way that will be with you for the rest of your life."  Bob ignored the letter, but six weeks later Doris was killed.

Roger had fled following the murder, but was arrested two months later in Las Vegas.  He had with him audiotapes of two men planning the murder.  Prosecutors believed the two men were Roger and Bob.  Roger claimed he was hired by Bob to murder Doris.  Prosecutors also learned that Doris had filed for divorce two months earlier.  Doris had an online lover that Bob said he was unaware of.  Prosecutors believe that Doris could have threatened to expose Bob’s bookmaking business in order to obtain a larger divorce settlement.

Shortly before a prosecutor was about to offer Roger a deal to testify against Bob in exchange for getting out of jail, Roger committed suicide in his cell.  Roger left a note stating that he had killed Doris on his own as an act of revenge, and that Bob was not involved.  The prosecutor convinced a judge that Roger’s note was unreliable hearsay, and therefore inadmissible.  The prosecutor hired an audio expert who had once worked for the FBI to analyze Roger’s tapes.  Contrary to the prosecutor’s hopes, the expert reported that he was “very confident” that Bob’s voice was not on the tapes.  After listening to the tapes, the jury thought the voices on it were too muffled to identify Bob’s voice.  They acquitted him.

While Roger was imprisoned, aspiring crime writer Vanessa Leggett visited him and made 50 hours of audiotapes of her interviews with Roger.  On them Roger pointed a finger at Bob and claimed that Roger had agreed to pay him $100,000 a year for ten years in exchange for killing Doris.  Roger claimed he taped his conversations with Bob as insurance in case Bob failed to pay up.  Armed with this new evidence, prosecutors planned to try Bob again, this time in federal court, three and a half years after his acquittal in state court.  Roger’s “dying declaration” suicide note would still be inadmissible, but his taped statements to Leggett would be admissible, even though Bob would be denied his constitutional right to confront Roger regarding their truthfulness.

Four days before his second trial was to begin, Bob, out on bail, boarded a plane and flew to Amsterdam.  He did not want to face the possibility of a conviction.  He carried with him $135,000 and a fake passport.  Dutch officials spotted the fake passport and took Bob into custody.  After the U.S. began extradition proceedings against him, Bob’s Dutch lawyers argued that international treaty protects against double jeopardy and prohibits the Dutch government from sending Bob back to face murder charges a second time.  Not only did a Dutch court agree, but so did the prosecutor.

Dutch courts eventually agreed to extradite Bob, but only after the U.S. filed new charges against Bob of passport and tax fraud and also agreed not prosecute him for murder.  Bob pleaded guilty to the new charges in 2004 and will be released from prison in 2014.  Bob’s two daughters have stood with him and have never believed he killed their mother.  The U.S. government says it has found a way to prosecute Bob again for murder upon his release from prison.  Leggett has written a pro-prosecution book about the case, entitled Murder by the Book.  It is expected to be released in 2007.  (48 Hours)  [2/07]

Gilbert Amezquita was convicted of aggravated assault after Kathy Bingham was severely beaten at the Houston plumbing company where he worked and which her family owned.  Shortly after coming out of a 10-day coma, the still-hospitalized Bingham whispered to police that it was “Gilbert” who had assaulted her.  Amezquita was a U.S. Army reservist with no prior criminal record.  His appellate attorney, Roland Moore, found that prosecutors had failed to consider that a second Gilbert - Alonzo Gilbert Guerrero - also worked at the plumbing company.  Moore discovered that Bingham and Guerrero had argued a few days before the attack and that Guerrero had Bingham's cell phone after the beating.  Guerrero, who is now serving a seven-year prison sentence for burglary, did not have a good explanation for how he came to possess Bingham's phone.

In 2007, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles recommended a pardon based on innocence for Amezquita.  News of the Board's action did not please Bingham, who maintains that Amezquita attacked her. Governor Perry has granted pardons in all 13 previous recommendations by the Board.  (Houston Chronicle)  [6/07]

Garland Leon Martin, also known as Butch, was convicted of the arson murders of his common law wife, Marcia Pool, her son, Michael Brady Stevens, age 3, and their joint daughter, Kristen Rhea Martin, age 1.  The three died in a fire at the home they shared with Martin.  The conviction was based in large part on a hypothesis that accelerants were used to start the fire.  Some samples from fire remnants in the master bedroom reportedly tested positive for Norpar and deparaffinated kerosene.

Norpar can be used as lamp oil and deparaffinated kerosene can be found in lighter fluid, but they are also common chemicals found in numerous household products.  Experts dispute the supposition that these chemicals indicate the presence of accelerants and are petitioning to check the state’s evidence that the alleged chemicals were even found.  A defense investigator thought the fire started on the back porch rather than in the master bedroom near the back door.  He criticized original investigators for discounting and then disposing of an electrical cord that was used to connect a refrigerator on the back porch to an outlet inside the house.  He thought the fire marshal was looking for arson from the outset.  (IP Arson)  [7/07]

L. C. "Cooper" Johnson and Bennie Young were convicted of the murders of W. H. Barker, his wife, Loula Barker, and a boy named Homer Turk, aged about 13.  The murders occurred at the Barker home on Corsicana Rd., seven miles southeast of Waco.  Turk had gone over to the Barkers to play dominoes. Dominoes were found on the table drawn and separated into hands, as though the parties had been engaged in playing the game. The body of Mr. Barker was found in the back yard near a woodpile, shot through the head. The body of Mrs. Barker was found in the house, and her head was cut to pieces by blows from an axe; Turk was also killed by blows inflicted with an axe.

Johnson and Young, who were described as "boys," were arrested for these murders and confessed to them while in police custody.  The two were released in 1934 after the actual culprit was discovered.  [5/08]

David Wayne Spence was convicted of the murder of Jill Montgomery and sentenced to death.  Montgomery, 17, along with Raylene Rice, 17, and Montgomery’s boyfriend, Kenneth Franks, 18, were found murdered in Speegleville Park at Lake Waco.  Three other individuals, Gilbert Melendez, Tony Melendez, and Muneer Deeb were also convicted in connection to the murders.  Truman Simons, a night jailer who had unsupervised contact with inmates, largely developed the cases against all four.  Simons operated his own perjury factory in that he was able to get numerous inmates to testify to any story he wanted them to.  His only problem was coming up with believable stories that fit the facts.

Spence was executed on April 3, 1997.  Marvin Horton, the police lieutenant who supervised the case, said, "I do not think David Spence committed this crime."  Ramon Salinas, the homicide detective on the case, added, "My opinion is that David Spence was innocent.  Nothing from the investigation ever led us to any evidence that he was involved."  One of the inmates who testified at Spence's trial, Robert Snelson, said, "We all fabricated our accounts of Spence confessing in order to try to get a break from the state on our cases."  An “award-winning” pro-prosecution book, Careless Whispers by Dallas journalist Carlton Stowers was written about the murders.  It reportedly lionizes Simons who “brought Spence to justice.”  (DP News)  [1/07]

Deeb, a convenience store owner, had allegedly hired three men to kill a female employee on whom he had a $20,000 accident policy.  However, Deeb had such policies on all his employees as a hedge against worker compensation claims.  The prosecution alleged that the three men then mistakenly killed a woman who was not an employee.  The murdered woman did not seem to be the victim of a contractual killing as she was raped and tortured, as were two of her friends.  None of his three alleged co-conspirators testified against Deeb even though they were charged with capital murder like Deeb and were in a position to negotiate for a reduced sentence.  One trial witness testified that Deeb had acknowledged he would receive insurance money if one of his employees ever was murdered.  Deeb was convicted and sentenced to death.

Deeb’s conviction was overturned because the judge allowed a jailhouse informant to give hearsay testimony about statements allegedly made by one of Deeb’s alleged co-conspirators.  This informant described a murder for hire scheme in detail.  Deeb was acquitted at retrial in 1993.  (NL)

Clarence Lee Brandley, a black man, was accused of raping and strangling 16-year-old Cheryl Dee Ferguson, a white girl, in the high school where he worked as a janitor.  Ferguson was a member of a visiting Bellville volleyball team.  The prosecution's case was built on the premise that there were five janitors who had opportunity to commit the crime, and the other four (who were white) provided alibis for each other.  The sperm evidence recovered from the victim's body was destroyed prior to trial.  A fresh spot of blood was found on the victim's blouse that had a blood type other than the victim and Brandle