Anthony Graves Exonerated: Blatant Prosecutorial Misconduct of D.A. Charles Sebesta Sent Innocent Man to Death Row for 18 Years
By: Houston Criminal Lawyer John Floyd and Paralegal Billy Sinclair
A recent Iowa State University study, conducted by sociology professor Matt DeLisi, found that the total cost to society for a single murder in the United States is $17.25 million. Professor DeLisi led a team of five Iowa State graduate students in a study of 654 convicted and incarcerated murderers. This enormous price tag is measured in terms of costs to the victims, the criminal justice system, loss of productivity to both the victim and offender, and estimated costs to society to prevent future violence.
DeLisi’s study, titled Murder by the Numbers: Monetary Costs Imposed By A Sample of Offenders, was published in the February 2010 edition of the Journal of Forensic Psychiatry and Psychology. This latest study by Professor DeLisi, and his student colleagues, draws heavily from a 2003 study based on the 654 convicted and incarcerated murder offenders housed in eight states: Texas, Ohio, New Jersey, Florida, Arkansas, Georgia, North Carolina, and Oklahoma. Using these 654 offenders, DeLisi’ latest study concluded that each murder they committed cost $17,252,656 with the most violent offender individually racking “costs greater than $150 million.” The study added:
“That each murder costs more than $17.25 million does not convey the true costs imposed by homicide offenders in the current sample. Since the mean homicide conviction was more than one, the average murderer in these analyses actually imposed costs approaching $24 million. For the offender who murdered nine victims, the total murder-specified costs were $155,457,083!”
But what about the price tag associated with wrongfully convicting an innocent man for multiple murders. The banner headline of the Houston Chronicle(10-28-10) informed its readers thatAnthony Graves, who had been incarcerated 18 years (most of which was spent on death row) for six murders committed in 1992 in Burleson County, was released from jail after District Attorney Bill Parham filed a motion to dismiss all charges against the condemned inmate. The Graves case has a tortured history: Graves’ youngest brother, Author Curry, told the police, and eventually the jury that convicted and condemned Graves to death, that Graves had been at home sleeping on the night of the massacre of Bobbie Davis, her 16-year-old daughter, and four grandchildren, ages 4 to 9.


