Former Texas prosecutor disbarred for sending innocent man to death row
AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - A Texas legal panel voted on Monday to disbar a former prosecutor for sending an innocent man to death row by presenting tainted testimony and making false statements that undermined the defendant's alibi.
The Board of Disciplinary Appeals appointed by the Texas Supreme Court upheld a state licensing board's decision to disbar Charles Sebesta for his conduct in convicting Anthony Graves, who spent 18 years in prison on charges of setting a fire that killed six people before being freed.
Graves, who spent 12 of those years on death row, had sought to have Sebesta disbarred.
Sebesta had convicted Robert Carter for the murders and tried to get Carter to say Graves was an accomplice. But the day before he was to testify, Carter told Sebesta he acted alone and Graves was not involved, the board said.
"Sebesta never disclosed this information to the defense," the board said.
Sebesta then presented false testimony implicating Graves, crucial in a conviction since there was no physical evidence linking him to the crime, it said.
Before Graves' attorney was to present the alibi witness, Sebesta falsely stated in court that the witness was a suspect in the murders and could be indicted. The witness refused to testify and left the court, it said.
http://news.yahoo.com/former-texas-prosecutor-disbarred-sending-innocent-man-death-225026879.html?nf=1
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I read a book called Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson about case after case like this, and it doesn't cover all the cases he worked on, nor does it take into account the multitude of cases he couldn't get to.
I'm glad he's disbarred but that seems like a pretty mild punishment for doing something so horrible.
