(Texas) State Bar board affirms disbarment of prosecutor who sent innocent man to death row

[Eugene]

Source: Dallas Morning News

State Bar board affirms disbarment of prosecutor who sent innocent man to death row

Brandi Grissom

Published: February 8, 2016 12:37 pm

The disciplinary board of the Texas State Bar on Monday affirmed the agency’s decision to disbar Charles Sebesta, the former prosecutor who oversaw the wrongful death sentence of Anthony Graves.

Graves, who spent 18 years in prison, including 12 on death row, for a fiery multiple murder he did not commit, filed a complaint against Sebesta in January 2014. He asked the Bar to hold Sebesta accountable for withholding critical evidence of his innocence.

“The bar stepped in to say that’s not the way our criminal justice system should work,” Graves said. “This is a good day for justice.”

In June, the Texas State Bar revoked the former Burleson County district attorney’s law license finding that he had engaged in prosecutorial misconduct in Graves’ case.

Sebesta appealed that ruling, and last month his lawyers told the State Bar of Texas Board of Disciplinary Appeals that he should not be disbarred based on technicalities in the rules that govern lawyer discipline. They argued that in 2007 the Bar had already ruled that there was no cause to disbar Sebesta and that the agency couldn’t change its mind in response to a new complaint Graves filed.

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Read more: http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com/2016/02/state-bar-board-affirms-disbarrment-of-prosecutor-who-sent-innocent-man-to-death-row.html/

[malokvale77]

1. Good

Maybe there is a tiny bit of sanity left in Texas after all.

[Victor_c3]

2. They should put him on death row for 12 years so he can understand what it feels like

Not at all related to my post's tittle, I used to be a proponent of the death penalty as a young adult. The one thing that changed my mind was a study that I read in which they found that when you look at the number of people who are sentenced to life in prison for crimes that could result in a death sentence that 1 in 20 convictions are overturned. So, it is safe to assume that 5% of all people on death row were wrongfully put there.

There are some awful people out there and there are plenty of people who deserve a death sentence in my opinion, but a 1 in 20 chance that you got it wrong is not acceptable or palatable to me. My lust for blood is far outweighed by my desire for real justice.