TX: Governmental Immunity Protects District Attorney who Fired His Assistant for Acting Ethically

by Bert | May 30, 2019 | Texas

Over four years have passed since we last covered the wrongful-termination lawsuit filed by a former assistant district attorney, Eric Hillman, against the Nueces County District Attorney’s Office in Corpus Christi, Texas. Hillman alleged that then-District Attorney,...

TX: Turns Out Playing a YouTube Video of a Lion Trying to Eat a Child in a Simple Robbery Case Will Undo A Conviction

by Bert | Apr 4, 2019 | Texas

Sometimes it feels like this website provides public service announcements to prosecutors, making it clear what they are not allowed to do. If these announcements strike you as catering to the lowest-common-denominator, well, we don’t really know what to say (except,...

TX: Alfred Brown Actually Innocent; Unethical Prosecutor Could Face New Round of Ethical Scrutiny

by Bert | Mar 11, 2019 | Texas

Alfred Brown’s case—one we have covered several times over the years—reached an important milestone this past week. Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg “has officially declared Alfred Dewayne Brown, who was on death row for almost 10 years, innocent. An...

TX: State Bar Dismisses Grievance Against Harris County Prosecutor, But Brown’s Case for ‘Actual Innocence’ is Not Closed

by Jane | Jan 22, 2019 | Texas

The Texas State Bar has dismissed allegations against former Harris County prosecutor Dan Rizzo of a cover-up that landed Alfred Dewayne Brown on death row. It has been four years since we wrote about the reversal of Brown’s conviction and death sentence, and in that...

TX: Justice Requires A Full-Blown Investigation into the Prosecutorial Misconduct in Alvin Braziel’s Case

by Bert | Dec 12, 2018 | Texas

Alvin Braziel is dead. The State killed him on Tuesday, December 11, 2018. The circumstances surrounding his death warrant a full-blown investigation. We know how he died—the State injected him with lethal drugs—but we do not know how it is possible the government...

TX: Fifth Circuit Takes DOJ’s Bait, Disfigures Brady and Due Process

by Bert | Nov 28, 2018 | Texas

After rehearing en banc the case of Alvarez v. The City of Brownsville, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a disconcerting decision. If it was not bad enough that the Department of Justice was angling for an ultra-narrow understanding of prosecutors’ ethical...