Wrongly convicted men push justice system reform

AUSTIN — With about a month to go until the Legislature returns, criminal justice reform advocates are pushing newlegislation to prevent innocent Texans from spending time in prison for crimes they didn’t commit.

Activists from the Innocence Project, alongside three men who were wrongfully convicted in Texas, hosted a virtual news conference Wednesday advocating for three central reforms: mandatory pretrial hearings to vet jailhouse informants; a legal option for new, nonscientific evidence to be introduced after a person is convicted; and adjustments to the Michael Morton Act, which in 2013 removed some barriers for an accused person to access evidence.

“Texas has been a national leader on innocence issues,” said Michelle Feldman, the state campaigns director of the Innocence Project. “But there is always more that can be done, especially in this moment, when demands for racial equity and accountability in criminal justice have never been louder.”

Morton, a Williamson County man who in 1987 was wrongfully convicted of murdering his wife, was among Wednesday’s speakers. He spent more than two decades in prison before DNA evidence exonerated him in 2011.

Prosecutors withheld information from Morton’s defense team that may have prevented a conviction, including statements from neighbors who had seen a man in a green van lurking near Morton’s house before the murder.

The prosecution also suppressed an interview with his then-3-year-old son who had witnessed the killing and said his father wasn’t there.

In 2013, the Legislature passed an act in Morton’s name, creating an“open-file” discovery policy expanding the evidence available to defense teams.

But six years later, the Texas Supreme Court exposed a loophole in the law — it doesn’t offer legal protections to prosecutors who disobey their bosses’ orders to hide exculpatory information.

“It seems bizarre, especially if you’re not a lawyer or you’re not a legislator. What other laws can DAS break?” Morton said Wednesday, adding: “The good news in this is the Texas Legislature can fix this in the next session, and that’s encouraging. At some point, there’s got to be an end to this, and it just makes sense.”

A second proposal would require judges to hold pretrial hearings to review jailhouse informants’ testimony before it’s presented in court.

Such a mandate would have been game-changing in the cases of Dennis Allen and John Nolley, advocates say, as both men were convicted largely based on faulty statements from jailhouse informants.

“A jailhouse informant can’t do what he does unless there is someone interested in using him to do it,” said Allen, a Dallas man who was wrongfully convicted of murder in 2000 and declared innocent in 2019. “And, sad to say, there area quite a few law enforcement detectives and agents and prosecutors who are looking for an easy way out. They’re not looking to solve a case — they’re looking for a conviction.”

In his case, a jailhouse informant claimed that Allen had confessed to the murder— and, on the witness stand, the informant denied asking for or being promised any form of leniency because of his testimony.

Years later, documents showed the informant had given false testimony to receive better treatment in his own case.

Nolley of Tarrant County was similarly convicted because of uncorroborated jailhouse informant testimony. He spent 19 years in prison for a murder he didn’t commit and was exonerated in 2018.

If other innocent Texans can benefit from legislation preventing Nolley’s situation from happening again, “it makes me feel like the 19 years were not in vain,” he said.

The final legislative proposal would permit the introduction of new, nonscientific evidence in a case if it could exonerate a person.

Forensic or DNA evidence already can be introduced after a conviction in Texas, but other nonscientific discoveries, such as a confession, aren’t usually an option.

“I believe, with the loud cry for justice, equity and equality, that we’re going to be able to do something to keep bending the arc of justice the right way — where every American, every Texan, can stand and know that the law means something,” said state Rep. Senfronia Thompson, D-houston, the sponsor of the evidence proposal.

“Texas has been a national leader on innocence issues. But there is always more that can be done, especially in this moment.” Michelle Feldman, state campaigns director of the Innocence Project