Ex-Prosecutor Disbarred After Wrongful Convictions in Texas

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

A former Dallas County prosecutor has surrendered his law license after the State Bar of Texas said he withheld evidence that led to the wrongful convictions of two men who spent 14 years in prison in the fatal stabbing of a pastor.

By Associated Press
|May 16, 2021, at 7:16 p.m.

DALLAS (AP) — A former Dallas County prosecutor has surrendered his law license after the State Bar of Texas said he withheld evidence that led to the wrongful convictions of two men who spent 14 years in prison in the fatal stabbing of a pastor.

The Dallas Morning News reports that Richard E. “Rick” Jackson surrendered his law license last month. The State Bar concluded that he failed to inform Dennis Allen and Stanley Mozee's defense attorneys about evidence that could have cleared them at their capital murder trials in 2000.

“This case is not about someone disbarred for making a mistake or a prosecutor who accidentally or even sloppily failed to turn over favorable evidence,” Nina Morrison, a lawyer with the Innocence Project in New York who worked to clear Allen and Mozee, told the newspaper.

“This is someone who repeatedly and intentionally hid favorable evidence from two defendants who were on trial for their lives.”

Read more: https://www.usnews.com/news/us/articles/2021-05-16/ex-prosecutor-disbarred-after-wrongful-convictions-in-texas

---

Richard E. “Rick” Jackson





Stanley Mozee, Conviction Integrity Unit Chief, Cynthia Garza, D.A. John Creuzot, Innocence Project Senior Staff Attorney Nina Morrisn, Dennis Allen, and Innocence Project of Texas Gary Udashen.

[EYESORE 9001]

1. Well, that's rare

or so it seems. I’m not accustomed to seeing corrupt and/or incompetent DAs suffering any consequences for their unjust actions and behavior. More of this, please!

[OldBaldy1701E]

6. Yeah but

I’m not accustomed to seeing corrupt and/or incompetent people in any position of authority suffering any consequences for their unjust actions and behavior.

I feel that this is the more prescient statement.

[Auggie]

7. I'd expect a civil trial at the very least. Guess we'll have to wait and see.

[EYESORE 9001]

8. Yeah, it'd be great if this asspickle had to suffer monetarily

Even better if he faced criminal charges.

[Auggie]

9. Yes! He lost his law license, so it's a start.

[Fortinbras Armstrong]

14. In 1983, a girl named Jeanine Nicarico was raped and murdered in Naperville, Illinois

About 35 miles west of Chicago. For a number of reasons, the authorities got fixated on Rolando Cruz and Alejandro Hernandez as the culprits. However, the only piece of physical evidence, a bootprint on the door of her home, didn't match either man. There was reason to suspect another man, Brian Dugan (who did have the correct foot size), but the DuPage County Sherriff's office and State's Attorney insisted on trying Cruz and Hernandez. The case was kicked back by the appellate court twice for retrial, and the State's Attorney kept ignoring Dugan to retry Cruz and Hernandez. Finally, at the third trial, it was shown that a Sherriff's detective had perjured himself (he testified about a phone call on a specific date, and the defense showed that he was on vacation in Florida on that date), and the judge threw out the case.

In 1996 the state indicted seven DuPage County law enforcement officials for conspiracy to convict Cruz and wrongful prosecution. They were acquitted but Cruz, Hernandez and Steven Buckley (one of the three original defendants) filed a civil suit against DuPage County and won.

Brian Dugan, already convicted of rape and murder of both a child and an adult woman in separate events, had claimed in 1985 to have committed the crime. His DNA was later found to match that from the Nicarico crime scene. Dugan was not indicted until 2005 by a DuPage County grand jury for the crimes against Nicarico, and he pleaded guilty in 2009. He was initially sentenced to death. After Illinois abolished this punishment, his sentence was commuted to life in prison with no possibility of parole.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

2. Evil prosecutors & cops should have to serve double the wrongful conviction times. . . . nt

[DFW]

19. That has long been my position on deliberate wrongful convictions

Those directly responsible should be made to serve the full sentence that they inflicted on innocent people. If it turns out that they wrongfully sent an innocent to execution, this should not be excluded from the requirement. THAT should cut down on malicious, wrongful prosecution and conviction of innocent citizens, by about 100% rather quickly.

[whistler162]

3. So is he going to prison for 28 years?

"two men who spent 14 years in prison"

14 x 2 = 29 seems fair!

[BumRushDaShow]

4. Amazing

They need to lock up a whole pile of D.A.s

Fabricating and/or withholding evidence and forced confessions, in cahoots with the FOP-fueled cops, is modus operandi in the big cities. That's so they can "brag" about how they brought criminals to heel in "crime-infested" neighborhoods and win re-election. Meanwhile the crime goes on unabated because the innocent are locked up and the guilty still run the streets, while witnesses fear for their lives if they "snitch" on the real perps.

[Beachnutt]

5. One of the Most corrupt counties in Tx is the home of Louis Gohmert

Smith County Tx,
https://www.amazon.com/SMITH-COUNTY-JUSTICE-David-Ellsworth/dp/B002ACZERA

https://www.chron.com/news/article/Win-at-all-costs-is-Smith-County-s-rule-1632942.php

Many people are in prison innocent because of David Dobbs and Jack Skeen.
Louis Gohmert worked for Jack Skeen in the district attorneys corrupt office before Gov. George Bush appointed screwy gohnert judge.

[Trueblue Texan]

10. Brought me to tears...

I'm so joyful this horrible man is getting some reckoning, but shouldn't he have to serve time for robbing two innocent human beings of their freedom for so long? They were innocent, but he wasn't.

[onetexan]

12. Dont rejoice yet, justice isn't done till the crooked former prosecutor os locked up

He's taken 14 yrs of life from 2 innocent men &
subjected them to hell during their incarceration.

[wolfie001]

11. The mother fucker moved to Alaska.....

....I guess that's the new Idaho. He also sued for racial discrimination when they fired his ass. What foul pieces of shit republicans are. lol

[boyedav1969]

13. Isn't this a criminal offense in and of itself?

Isn't this the prosecutorial equivalent of embezzlement, where the prosecutor is misappropriating their authority? These mf'ers are far more deserving of long sentences with mandatory minimums than drug offenders. Using their positions to wrongfully deprive others of decades of their lives. I agree with others in letting the punishment fit the crime.

[Duppers]

17. Abso.fuckin.lutely!!

If not jailed, sued. Preferably both.

Cruel p.o.s.

[Schmice3]

15. But the DA will never go to jail over this.

[dalton99a]

16. He got a fat pension and a summer job in Alaska

The career prosecutor now spends summers in Alaska, where he drives tour buses that work with cruise ships, Hinton said.

https://www.dallasnews.com/news/courts/2021/05/13/dallas-county-prosecutor-who-withheld-evidence-disbarred-after-dna-tests-clear-2-men-of-murder/

[LetMyPeopleVote]

18. I am glad that this asshole was disbarred