{"id":185,"date":"2013-04-22T04:27:58","date_gmt":"2013-04-22T04:27:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/freerodneystanberry.com\/blog\/?p=185"},"modified":"2013-04-22T12:59:52","modified_gmt":"2013-04-22T12:59:52","slug":"when-texas-gets-it-right-former-prosecutor-held-criminally-responsible-for-putting-innocent-man-in-prison","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/freerodneystanberry.com\/blog\/?p=185","title":{"rendered":"When Texas Gets it Right: Former Prosecutor Held Criminally Responsible for Putting Innocent Man in Prison"},"content":{"rendered":"

http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=cEVURKsGoMI<\/a> (a news report about Rodney’s case)<\/span><\/p>\n

April 21, 2013<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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I want to bring to your attention this very important occurrence, a prosecutor who is being held criminally responsible for withholding evidence that led to Michael Morton spending 25 years of his life in prison for crimes he did not commit (<\/span> <\/span>http:\/\/www.statesman.com\/news\/news\/local\/ken-anderson-court-of-inquiry-resumes\/nXRLm\/). A warrant was issued for now Judge Ken Anderson following a hearing by the Texas Court of Inquiry hearing about whether Anderson withheld key evidence that could have prevented Morton from spending 25 years of his life behind bars for crimes he did not commit. <\/span> <\/span>The judge made a very brave and necessary ruling, he made a ruling not just in favor of Michael Morton, but in favor of the system of justice that far too many prosecutors corrupt when they opt to cut corners to get a wrongful conviction and then work for years, even decades, to be sure that the wrongful conviction isn\u2019t overturned or that the wrongfully convicted isn\u2019t granted parole.<\/span> <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Michael Morton has gotten justice, although this can\u2019t possibly take away the 25 years he spent in prison, being disowned by his own family because the Williamson County, Texas District Attorney\u2019s Office convinced them that Morton was guilty. He has gotten compensated, a bill named after him by the Texas Legislature designed to help prevent prosecutors from withholding exculpatory material, the Texas Bar Association\u2019s ongoing lawsuit against Ken Anderson, a hearing by the Texas Court of Inquiry, and now the prosecutor in his case having to be held accountable, as a criminal would be held accountable for his crimes (by the way, I wrote this blog a couple of years ago entitled \u201cThe Prosecutor and the Criminal, the blog isn\u2019t against prosecutors as I think most are good, decent, hard working people who truly want to stamp out crime and put away the bad people, but some prosecutors act like criminals- read to see my rationale http:\/\/freerodneystanberry.com\/blog\/2011\/08\/11\/the-prosecutor-and-the-criminal\/-).<\/span> <\/span>But for Morton, the \u201csense of justice\u201d he received did not stop with what is happening to the original prosecutor in his case, Ken Anderson, but Anderson\u2019s successor, John Bradley, was defeated by Jana Duty, who had support of the family of the victim of the same man who murdered Morton\u2019s wife. When prosecutors do not get the right person, that person goes on to commit other crimes.<\/span> <\/span>As District Attorney, Bradley mocked Morton\u2019s quest to get a bandana containing DNA tested, mocked Morton for claiming he is innocent, and continued to convince Morton\u2019s in-laws that they had the right man.<\/span> <\/span>Bradley was defeated by Jana Duty, in part, because the victim\u2019s family (the second victim) supported Duty, frustrated that the Williamson District Attorney\u2019s Office, in pursuit of Morton, let the actual killer free to kill again (that man was just found guilty by a jury, but not before Morton spent the 25 years in prison.) <\/span> <\/span>Michael Morton was innocent and incarcerated AND he was the victim\u2019s family, it was his wife who was murdered. Let that sink in for a moment.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Rodney K. Stanberry and the Withholding of Evidence<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

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My interest in wrongful convictions comes from the fact that my cousin, Rodney K. Stanberry, is in his 17<\/span>th<\/span><\/sup> year of a wrongful conviction. He will be 44 on April 27, 2013.<\/span> <\/span>He was nearly 23 when arrested for the crimes for which he is currently serving time.<\/span> <\/span>He has had to spend half of his life living a nightmare, innocent, wrongfully accused, arrested and convicted. Wrongfully accused in that Rodney did everything a law abiding citizen is asked to do, he went to law enforcement to help them locate the people he knew to be involved, including providing photos and a telephone number for a detective in New York to help the people from New York to be brought back to answer from the crimes he committed.<\/span> <\/span>Because he was perceived to be too helpful, he became a suspect.<\/span> <\/span>Rodney worked at the same job from 1989 until just before he began serving his prison sentence in 1997.<\/span> <\/span>On March 3, 1992, the day after the brutal crime against the victim were committed, he took the only personal day that he\u2019d taken off to go to the police knowing that they still had time to apprehend the people from New York before they left the bus station as they jumped on the bus from Mobile back to New York as Rodney confronted them.<\/span> <\/span>The detective told the victim\u2019s family that he wasn\u2019t at work on March 2<\/span>nd<\/span><\/sup>, instead of March 3<\/span>rd<\/span><\/sup>. This could have been easily been corrected, but when they let the guys in New York go and when Jordan gave immunity to the person who confessed, it became convenient to ignore Rodney\u2019s work records and supervisor\/co-workers placing him at work. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Wrongfully arrested in that prosecutor Buzz Jordan conducted a full interview with Rodney without reading him his Miranda rights <\/span>(http:\/\/freerodneystanberry.com\/yahoo_site_admin\/assets\/docs\/Jordan20bfi1.161162558.pdf – at the end Rodney actually you are starting to act as if I am the one who did this, you\u2019ve already established that I was here at work and interaction between Rodney\u2019s trial attorney and Judge McRae about the interview: http:\/\/www.freerodneystanberry.com\/yahoo_site_admin\/assets\/docs\/mcrae1.161162953.pdf<\/span><\/strong>). Wrongfully convicted in that the confession was kept from the jury and evidence of innocence was ignored or suppressed by the Mobile District Attorney\u2019s Office because the District Attorney\u2019s Office had a murder-for hire theory that they could not prove, because there was no such plot.<\/span> <\/span>But, as it relates to the purpose of informing you of the judge\u2019s ruling to hold former prosecutor, now judge Ken Anderson criminally responsible for withholding evidence that led to the conviction of Michael Morton. The prosecutor in Rodney\u2019s case travelled from Mobile, Alabama to Rikers Island Prison in New York to interview the person he claims shot the victim in Rodney\u2019s case.<\/span> <\/span>He said, under oath at Rodney\u2019s Rule 32 Post Conviction hearing, that he was in New York while on vacation and just went to the prison to see if Rene Whitecloud, known as \u201cPonytail\u201d existed He says no notes were taken, even though he talked to him (<\/span><\/span>http:\/\/freerodneystanberry.com\/yahoo_site_admin\/assets\/docs\/20100914155013.256151941.pdf<\/span><\/a>). <\/span> <\/span><\/strong>If there were an Alabama Court of Inquiry, and if the Alabama Bar Association took interest in this case, I\u2019m sure you\u2019d see similar headlines that you see in Michael Morton\u2019s case (http:\/\/www.freerodneystanberry.com\/exculpatory_evidence<\/strong><\/span>).<\/span> <\/span>It isn\u2019t just that the original prosecutor pursues a wrongful conviction, but it is the subsequent district attorneys in the office that work hard to uphold the conviction and to convince the victim\u2019s family that the person convicted is guilty.<\/span> <\/span>In Michael Morton\u2019s case, his own son, when he turned 18, changed his name to distance himself from a father that the prosecutor had told his family killed his mother.<\/span> <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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When District Attorney Ashley Rich was running to replace John Tyson, Jr., she talked about the integrity of the conviction. She said that if an attorney withheld exculpatory evidence then that prosecutor\u2019s career would be over, it is something that she would not tolerate (<\/span>http:\/\/www.freerodneystanberry.com\/key_documents_in_rodneys_case<\/span><\/a>) <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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But as District Attorney, she is following into the pattern that many fall into (<\/span>you can see here for a statement from her office about Rodney\u2019s case: (http:\/\/newsone.com\/1809115\/rodney-k-stanberry-is-alabama-still-the-land-of-jim-crow\/). <\/span><\/strong> <\/span>Part of the problem, I believe, beyond the convict and uphold the conviction at all cost culture is that she has worked closely over the 14 years that she served as ADA before becoming District Attorney with the people that she would have to talk about these wrongful conviction. I explain it here (<\/span><\/span>http:\/\/freerodneystanberry.com\/blog\/2012\/11\/21\/another-judge-grants-a-new-trial-in-mobile-alabama-a-reaction-to-the-lagniappe-article-on-william-zieglar\/<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>http:\/\/freerodneystanberry.com\/blog\/2011\/11\/16\/reaction-to-article-in-lagniappe-about-the-toby-priest-case\/<\/span><\/a>. <\/span> <\/span>When former Assistant District Attorney Eucellis Sullivan was fired by Mobile District Attorney Ashley Rich <\/strong><\/span>it was done so because she didn\u2019t win enough cases<\/span> <\/span>(http:\/\/www.local15tv.com\/news\/local\/story\/Ousted-Asst-D-A-Says-Firing-was-Unjust-D-A\/_k_jw7YebUuoBnZ-_2FUAg.cspx).<\/span> <\/span>She\u2019d worked in the District Attorney\u2019s Office for just a few years, as I recall. Can you imagine Rich going to the head of her White Collar Crimes division (Martha Tierney, the ADA on Rodney\u2019s Rule 32) and saying what was your ACTUAL rationale for making sure that the person who confessed to being with the person who shot our victim when he was shot didn\u2019t say anything?<\/strong><\/span> Did you really remain quiet when Jordan said he was on vacation when he interviewed the person we said killed our victim? Imagine.<\/span> <\/span>Or if she went to her prot\u00e9g\u00e9e Jennifer Wright (see Toby Priest case<\/strong><\/span>) and say were you really sure he was 100 percent guilty before you prosecuted him? Or if she went to long-term ADA Deborah Tillman\u00a0with Judge Sarah Stewart\u2019s order in the William Zieglar case and said, can you explain this to me (<\/span><\/span>http:\/\/blog.al.com\/live\/2013\/02\/how_the_system_failed_william.html<\/span><\/a>). And then go to her personal office, think about why she fired Sullivan and then show the same sense of outrage she felt that this person couldn\u2019t win cases would be directed towards those involved in putting innocent people in prison.<\/span> <\/span>Imagine that mentality.<\/span> <\/span>But, it is just a pipedream- and, by the way, I don\u2019t want people to be fired, I want a recognition that wrongful convictions have occurred and that she needs to put a mechanism in place to address past cases and to prevent them from happening again. <\/span> <\/span>In Williamson County, Texas, Jana Duty, a Republican, defeated Bradley and her Democratic general election challenger, the issue of Michael Morton\u2019s case was front and center.<\/span> <\/span>Listen to what DA Jana Duty has to say about the need to pursue justice, open files, and prevent wrongful convictions: <\/span><\/span>http:\/\/news.msn.com\/crime-justice\/video?videoid=2ece7fae-8e7e-4ec7-a623-f9fd0b53ca11#tscptmt<\/span><\/a>.<\/span> <\/span>Simply a breath of fresh air. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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44<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Rodney is about to spend his 44<\/span>th<\/span><\/sup> birthday in prison.<\/span> <\/span>He has another parole date in July and because he will not say he is guilty and remorseful for crimes he did not commit, he likely will be denied parole.<\/span> <\/span>His mother died last year; hopefully his 79 year old father will live long enough to see his son a free man.<\/span> <\/span>If Rodney were guilty, he likely would be out of prison right now, either he would have taken a plea or he would have been paroled- it seems that going before a parole board as a guilty person who shows remorse is preferable to the parole board than going before the parole board as an innocent man.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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It is rare that I will say this, but if Texas Justice, as practiced in aftermath of Morton\u2019s release of prison, would come to Alabama, there will be fewer innocent people in prison and more prosecutors instituting reforms in their respective offices.<\/span> <\/span>It is never too late to do what is right, fair, and just.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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<\/span>Sincerely, <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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<\/span>Artemesia Stanberry<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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For more information about Rodney\u2019s case, please read this Boston Review<\/em> investigative article http:\/\/www.bostonreview.net\/BR38.2\/beth_schwartzapfel_valerie_finley_innocent_convictions.php<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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