John T. Floyd Law Firm
Board Certified Houston Criminal Lawyer
“Serious Criminal Defense Throughout Texas”
Board Certified Criminal Law Specialist
Experienced Criminal Trial Lawyer
Federal And State Criminal Defense
Phone # (713) 224-0101
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WRONGFULLY CONVICTED ISSUES
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January 19, 2011
THE IMPACT OF SMITH V. CAIN
High Court Misses Opportunity to Discuss Ethical Obligations of Prosecutors
By: Houston Criminal Lawyer John Floyd and Paralegal Billy Sinclair
For reasons we discussed in a previous post, the U.S. Supreme Court had an opportunity in Smith v. Cain to discuss the ethical discovery obligations of both federal and state prosecutors—an idea strongly suggested by the American Bar Association in their amicus brief filed in the case. While the issue before the Court was whether Louisiana prosecutors had committed a Brady violation in a murder case by suppressing favorable evidence, the ABA had encouraged the Justices to use the case to emphasize that a prosecutor’s pre-trial ethical obligations to disclose exculpatory and mitigating evidence under Rule 3.8(d) of the Model Rules of Professional Conduct, 3.09(d) in the Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct, are broader and distinct from the post-conviction Brady analysis. In its amicus curiae brief, the ABA framed the issue as follows: more...
January 12, 2012
FEDERAL DISCOVERY AND INSPECTION PROCEDURES
Tunnel Vision Interferes with Duty to Comply with Discovery Obligations
By: Houston Criminal Lawyer John Floyd and Paralegal Billy Sinclair
Most litigation in federal criminal cases regarding discovery of evidence, or lack thereof, is based on claims of violations of due process protections found in the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments of the Constitution. These constitutional protections create duties upon the government to disclose to the defendant certain types of evidence that is favorable to the accused because it either questions the defendant’s guilt, exculpatory evidence, or is useful in impeaching a government witness. more...
January 5, 2011
“JUNK SCIENCE” ONCE AGAIN PUTS TEXAS IN NATIONAL FOREFRONT
Defense Lawyers Need to Challenge Questionable Expert Testimony and Conclusions
By: Houston Criminal Lawyer John Floyd and Paralegal Billy Sinclair
In October 2010 we posted piece titled “Dog Witnesses Kicked Out of the Courtroom” concerning a capital murder case in San Jacinto County. The accused, all members of the same family—Richard Lynn Winfrey Sr. and his son, Richard Jr., and daughter, Megan—were arrested in 2006 for the brutal murder of Murray Wayne Burr, a longtime custodial worker at the high school attended by the Winfrey siblings. Local law enforcement officials considered Winfrey and his two children as “persons of interests” shortly after Burr was murdered in his home, even though DNA evidence found at scene excluded the Winfreys. The proverbial “break in the case” came in 2006 when Richard Sr., who was housed in the Montgomery County jail, told another inmate David Campbell that “some kind of gun and some kind of knife collection” had been taken from Burr’s home, as well as other details about the murder, including the victim’s body being dragged from one room to another. Campbell repeated this information to the authorities. more...
December 28, 2011
WRONGFUL CONVICTION AND PROSECUTORIAL MISCONDUCT
Filing Grievances, Request for Courts of Inquiry in Wrongful Conviction and Exoneration Cases
By: Houston Criminal Lawyer John Floyd and Paralegal Billy Sinclair
On December 12, 2011, writing for Mother Jones, Beth Schwartzapfel and Hannah Levintova published a piece titled “How Many Innocent People Are In Prison?”—a piece based in part on research conducted by University of Michigan Law Professor Samuel Gross. Gross’s research, with the assistance of the New York-based Innocence Project and the Center on Wrongful Convictions, determined there have been as many as 850 exonerations in this country since the late 1980s. The Innocence Project lists 282 exonerations since 1989 based on DNA evidence alone. Extrapolating from these two figures, Schwartzapfel and Levintova conservatively estimate that 1 percent of the total prison population in the United States have been wrongfully convicted. Put it raw numbers, this means that approximately 20,000 inmates in the nation’s prison system were wrongfully convicted. more...
December 4, 2011
THE ETHICAL IMPLICATIONS OF A BRADY VIOLATION
Disciplinary Action against Rogue Prosecutors Who Intentionally Engage in Wrongful Conduct, Brady Violations Rare
By: Houston Criminal Lawyer John Floyd and Paralegal Billy Sinclair
Among lawyers practicing criminal law, “Brady violation” is probably second only to a “Miranda warning” as the most recognizable legal term in this country’s jurisprudence; and, significantly, both of these U.S. Supreme Court decisions are designed to curb prosecutorial and law enforcement misconduct. It’s an unfortunate commentary on our criminal justice system when these two important must be instructed by the highest court in the nation to obey the law and uphold our most cherished constitutional tenets: right to a fair trial and right to counsel. more...
November 12, 2011
SMITH V. CAIN: A LOOK AT PROSECUTOR’S DUTY TO DISCLOSE
ABA Files Amicus Demanding Disclosure of Exculpatory Evidence Regardless of Materiality, Broader than Brady
By: Houston Criminal Lawyer John Floyd and Paralegal Billy Sinclair
The Orleans Parish and Williamson County district attorney offices have something in common: both have a disturbing history of withholding exculpatory information that resulted in innocent men being sent to prison (or death row) for long periods of time (here, here and here). The U.S. Supreme Court, in the case of Smith v. Cain, is being asked by Juan Smith’s attorneys and the American Bar Association (“ABA”) to address a prosecutor’s pretrial ethical obligations to disclose exculpatory evidence. A “summary” of the ABA’s argument is outlined in its amicus curiae brief: more...
October 29, 2011
ANOTHER INNOCENT MAN FREED AFTER MISTAKEN IDENTIFICATION
Innocence Project Strikes Again: Henry James Freed After 30 Years
By: Houston Criminal Lawyer John Floyd and Paralegal Billy Sinclair
Thanks to the efforts of the New York-based Innocence Project, Henry James became the 273rd inmate in this country to be exonerated by DNA evidence. The first inmate exonerated by DNA came in 1989, and according to the Innocence Project, there have been 206 DNA exonerations since 2000. James, who was 20 years of age when arrested for the aggravated rape of a neighbor, served one month sigh of 30 years in the Louisiana prison system for that wrongful conviction. The average amount of time served by all the DNA exonerees is 13 years. more...
October 21, 2011
“PROSECUTOR OF THE YEAR” FEELS THE HEAT
Williamson County Justice System under Scrutiny by State Bar of Texas
By: Houston Criminal Lawyer John Floyd and Paralegal Billy Sinclair
Since our last post about the tragic case of Michael Morton, the “prosecutor of the year” in that case, now District Judge Ken Anderson, and his cohort, Mike Davis, who actually prosecuted Morton for the 1986 murder of his wife, face investigations by the State Bar of Texas and Morton’s attorneys, according to the Austin Statesman. The State Bar investigation is, as the newspaper accurately reported, a “rare step” by the Bar, as is the public acknowledgement that it has undertaken a disciplinary investigation against two of its members. Morton was freed from the state’s prison system on October 4, 2011 after serving 25 years for a murder he did not commit and on October 11, 2011 the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals formally exonerated the man after DNA testing of a critical piece of evidence not only cleared Morton of the murder of his wife but identified the real killer as well. more...
October 18, 2011
“PROSECUTOR OF THE YEAR!”
Williamson County District Attorneys Gain Distinction for Hiding Evidence, Wrongful Conviction and Hard Fought Cover-Up
By: Houston Criminal Lawyer John Floyd and Paralegal Billy Sinclair
Ken Anderson was a prosecutor in Williamson County, Texas, in 1986. In fact, he became Williamson County’s longest tenured district attorney with 16 ½ years as the county’s chief prosecutor and 5 ½ years as an assistant district attorney. Anderson knew his prosecuting business—so much so that his political pal, Gov. Rick Perry, appointed him to a District Judge position in January 2002. Why not, the State Bar of Texas Criminal Justice Section named Anderson “Prosecutor of the Year” in 1995 and five years later the Texas Crime Victim’s Clearinghouse tagged him the “Outstanding Prosecutor Upholding Victims’ Rights.” Along the way, he became a “Board Certified Criminal Law Specialist” and was elected as President of the Texas District and County Attorneys Association. And as if this was not enough for one man to achieve, Anderson lectured at over 300 schools where he told the leaders of tomorrow about the value of honest public service. more...
August 28, 2011
SUPREME COURT TO TACKLE WITNESS IDENTIFICATION ISSUE
Admissibility of Unreliable Identification Evidence
By: Houston Criminal Lawyer John Floyd and Paralegal Billy Sinclair
According to the New York-based Innocence Project, 75 percent of the nation’s 273 DNA exonerations involved eyewitness misidentification—and according to Harris County state senator Rodney Ellis, a longtime advocate of eyewitness identification reform, 86 percent of Texas’ 45 DNA exonerations (the most in the nation) involved eyewitness misidentification. Eyewitness misidentification, and its link to wrongful convictions, has been explored several times by us on this site (here, here and here). more...
July 22, 2011
PROSECUTORIAL MISCONDUCT IN CASEY ANTHONY CASE?
Prosecutors Fail to Disclose Favorable Evidence that Contradicted Expert’s Testimony
By: Houston Criminal Lawyer John Floyd and Paralegal Billy Sinclair
We have repeatedly made clear our disdain for prosecutorial misconduct (here). And here we go again. More dirty, underhanded prosecutorial tactics. Just two days after our July 16 post concerning the Casey Anthony “not guilty” verdict, The New York Times carried a report about these tactics being employed by Orlando prosecutors bent on convicting Anthony for capital murder of her two-year old daughter. In our July 16 post we made the following observation about manner of how little Caylee was murdered that prosecutors presented to the jury: more...
May 31, 2011
REQUESTS FOR DNA TESTING PRESENT ENORMOUS CHALLENGES
Right to Appointed Counsel Not Absolute: Courts Only Required to Appoint Counsel if Reasonable Grounds Exist for DNA Testing
By: Houston Criminal Lawyer John Floyd and Paralegal Billy Sinclair
Ruben Gutierrez was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death for the September 5, 1998 robbery/murder of 85-year-old Escolastica Harrison in Brownsville. The elderly woman owned a mobile home park and the trailer in which she lived doubled as an office. Gutierrez was a friend of Harrison’s nephew. He and the nephew, with other neighbors, frequently gathered behind the Harrison trailer to drink and socialize. Through this relationship Gutierrez got to know a lot about how Harrison conducted her business affairs; specifically, that she did not trust banks and kept all of her money in her trailer/office. Gutierrez was one of the few people who knew Harrison kept large sums of money in the trailer. more...
May 23, 2011
ACTUAL INNOCENCE: PUTTING A CAMEL THROUGH EYE OF A NEEDLE
Habeas Claims of Actual Innocence Require “Herculean” Burden by Clear and Convincing Evidence
By: Houston Criminal Lawyer John Floyd and Paralegal Billy Sinclair
It was March 22, 1987. Near midnight. The Dallas Police Department received a report that a man was lying face down in the street. The man was Jeffery Young who was transported to an area hospital, unconscious and bleeding. Before regaining consciousness, Young died and a subsequent autopsy revealed he had died from what the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals said was “severe skull fractures that were the result of multiple blows to the head.” The Dallas police then received another report about a BMW parked in an alley near where Young had been found mortally injured. The police quickly determined the BMW belong to Young. more...
April 1, 2011
ROGUE PROSECUTORS GET LICENSE TO LIE AND CHEAT
Connick v. Thompson: U.S. Supreme Court Allows Prosecutors to Hide Evidence Favorable to the Accused without Consequence
By: Houston Criminal Lawyer John Floyd and Paralegal Billy Sinclair
John Thompson spent over 18 years in a Louisiana prison, 14 isolated on death role, after a prosecution described as fundamentally unfair by prosecutorial design.
In Thompson’s struggle for justice, prosecutors intentionally withheld favorable evidence, which indicated he was innocent, prior to trial, during trial and throughout the years he spent in prison. The Supreme Court has now held this was not a civil rights violation. more...
February 7, 2011
CELL PHONES, TEXTS NOT SAFE FROM POLICE SEARCHES
Fifth Circuit: U.S. Court of Appeals Allows Search of Cell Phone Text Messages without Warrant, After Arrest
By: Houston Criminal Lawyer John Floyd and Paralegal Billy Sinclair
The popularity of Short Message Service (SMS), text messaging, originated in Europe and Asia before captivating American cell phone users, according to a 2008 CBS News report. SMS’ sudden popularity was linked directly to cost: it was cheaper to send short text messages than to make an actual phone call. CBS News pointed out that it cost less than a penny to send a text message in 2008. Perhaps it was also the cost factor that caused Americans, especially the young, to fall “head on heels” in love with texting in 2008. According to CTIA, the wireless industry trade association, Americans sent an average of 2.5 billion text messages per day that year, an increase of 160 percent over 2007. This SMS surge was fueled by teens between 13 and 17 who sent and received an average of 1,742 messages per month. And the SMS explosion in America did not escape the economic attention of the cell phone providers: the cost of sending and receiving text message increased by a whopping 100 percent during this same time period. more...
February 4, 2011
THE INNOCENCE PERCENTAGE
46,000 Innocent Lives Destroyed by False Allegations, Wrongful Convictions
By: Houston Criminal Lawyer John Floyd and Paralegal Billy Sinclair
Seton Hall University School of Law Professor D. Michael Risinger in 2007 published the results of a study, Innocents Convicted: An Empirically Justified Wrong Conviction Rate, in the Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology (Vol. 97, No. 3) which said that between 3.3 and 5 percent of all capital rape-murder convictions in this country involve innocent defendants. Going even lower than Professor Risinger’s 3.3 percentage, Radley Balko, senior editor of Reason Magazine, utilized the nation’s prison population in this country in 2008 and a 2% wrongful conviction rate to conclude there were at least 46,000 innocent people incarcerated in the nation’s prison system. 46,000.00! more...
October 30, 2010
THE COST OF MURDER/THE PRICE OF INNOCENCE
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. more...
October 9, 2010
PROSECUTORIAL MISCONDUCT:
THE SCOURGE OF THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM
Thompson v. Connick; Jury Awards 14 Million Dollars to Man Who Served 18 Years in Prison for Crime he Did Not Commit After Prosecutors Hid Favorable Evidence
By: Houston Criminal Lawyer John Floyd and Paralegal Billy Sinclair
Last year the U.S. Supreme Court in Van de Kamp v. Goldstein effectively reinforced a longstanding constitutional rule of law that prosecutors who engaged in unethical and criminal misconduct to secure criminal convictions are immunized from civil liability. They are protected by the doctrine of absolute immunity which insulates public officials from civil liability when performing their official duties, even if their conduct is unethical and criminal so long as the conduct is carried out within the scope of the official’s duties. more...
September 28, 2010
ACTUAL INNOCENCE IN POST-CONVICTION PROCEEDINGS
Timothy Cole Advisory Panel on Wrongful Convictions Recommends Expanded Post-Conviction DNA Testing, Habeas Corpus Based on Changing Science
By: Houston Criminal Lawyer John Floyd and Paralegal Billy Sinclair
U.S. District Court Judge William T. Moore, Jr., who presides in the Southern District of Georgia, recently observed in the death penalty case of Troy Davis (here and here) that only one state of the 35 states that have the death penalty does not have any post-conviction avenue for inmates to either secure or offer evidence of innocence. That lone state is Oklahoma. Altogether, 47 states and the District of Columbia have enacted statutes which provide varying degrees of access to remedies to establish innocence in a post-conviction setting. Massachusetts, Alaska, and Oklahoma are the only three hold-out states which have elected not to enact reform legislation in the critical area of establishing “actual innocence” despite the ever-increasing number of DNA exonerations. more...
September 25, 2010
TEXAS DISCOVERY PROCEDURES
Discovery, Brady Rules in Need of Reformation to Prevent Wrongful Convictions
By: Houston Criminal Lawyer John Floyd and Paralegal Billy Sinclair
Last month the Timothy Cole Advisory Panel (“Panel”), which was created by the Texas Legislature in its 2009 session to develop recommendations for the Texas Task Force on Indigent Defense to help prevent wrongful convictions, issued its “report” calling for changes in the state’s eyewitness identification procedures, custodial interrogations, discovery procedures, post-conviction proceedings, and various innocence projects that receive state funding. more...
September 22, 2010
PREVENTING FALSE CONFESSIONS
Requirement That Interrogations Be Recorded Is the Best Way To Preserve Integrity Of Confessions
By: Houston Criminal Lawyer John Floyd and Paralegal Billy Sinclair
The New York-based Innocence Project reports that as of September 10, 2010 there have been 258 DNA exonerations in this country. The project says that 25 percent of them involved false confessions and incriminating statements.
So why would a person confess to somewhat he didn’t do?
“The interrogation itself is stressful enough to get innocent people to confess,” Saul Kassin, psychology professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York told the Chicago Tribune this past July. “But add to that a layer of grief and shock and perhaps even some guilt—‘I should have been there’—and then that the parent is trying like hell to be cooperative because they want the murder of their child solved.” more...
September 13, 2010
RECOMMENDATIONS FROM THE TIMOTHY COLE ADVISORY PANEL ON WRONGFUL CONVICTIONS
Current Eyewitness Identification Procedure Reinforce False Memories and Lead to Wrongful Convictions
By: Houston Criminal Lawyer John Floyd and Paralegal Billy Sinclair
There have been 258 DNA exonerations in this country over the last two decades, according to the New York-based Innocence Project. In approximately 75 percent of those cases, eye misidentification played a significant role. It is an issue we have thus far blogged about four times this year (here, here, here, and here) and four times last year (here, here, here, and here)—the latter two 2009 posts dealing with the wrongful conviction of Timothy Cole. more...
September 3, 2010
THE MINEOLA SWINGER CLUB CASE: A LEGAL NIGHTMARE
Lying Texas Ranger, Overzealous Child Advocate Experts and Pro-Prosecution Judge Mock Justice
By: Houston Criminal Lawyer John Floyd and Paralegal Billy Sinclair
Most human tragedies are produced by random acts of Nature run amok. But far too often human tragedies are man-made, particularly in our criminal justice system. That’s what has happened in the so-called “Mineola swingers club” case. According to Michael Hall, in his latest Texas Monthly article about the case titled “Trial and Error,” this criminal justice tragedy began in 2005 when Margie Cantrell, a career “foster mom” (27 adopted children over 36 years) who either fled or migrated from California to Texas in 2004, walked into the Mineola Police Department, located in Wood County (just north of Tyler), and informed the police that two of her foster children had been forced to perform “sex shows” at the Retreat Club, a local “swingers’ club.” more...
August 17, 2010
ARSON MURDER: TOO MANY MISTAKES DEMANDS SCRUTINY
Flawed Forensics in Arson Cases: One Executed, One on Death Row, Four in Prison
By: Houston Criminal Attorney John Floyd and Paralegal Billy Sinclair
The question hangs like ugly morning moss from a large swamp oak tree: Did the State of Texas execute an innocent man when it put Cameron Todd Willingham to death on February 17, 2004? Just last month the Texas Forensic Science Commission ruled that Willingham’s August 1992 murder conviction was based on flawed forensic evidence. The Willingham case—and the way it has been handled by state officials and in particular Tex. Gov. Rick Perry and especially by Willingham’s former defense attorney—has proven to be a national and international embarrassment to the state’s criminal justice system. more...
August 1, 2010
MISTAKEN IDENTIFICATIONS SENT TWO INNOCENT MEN TO PRISON
Suggestive Police Procedures and Mistaken Identification Resulted in Two More Wrongful Convictions and Incarcerations, One for 27 Years
By: Houston Criminal Attorney John Floyd and Paralegal Billy Sinclair
Our criminal justice system is flawed. Its imperfections can be found in the 255 DNA exonerations of innocent offenders and the 138 people released from death row since 1973 in this country. But, paradoxically, its perfection lies in its willingness and ability to correct the imperfections brought about by human mistake. According to the New York-based Innocence Project, mistaken identification is the “greatest cause for wrongful convictions,” playing a role in 75 percent of the nation’s DNA exonerations. Twice this year we have posted pieces dealing with the dangers, and, yes, tragedies caused by, the mistaken pointed finger (here and here). more...
May 18, 2010
TWO MORE DNA EXONERATIONS
Criminal Defense Lawyers Must Never Give up, Never Lose Faith That Justice Will Ultimately Prevail
By: Houston Criminal Attorney John Floyd and Paralegal Billy Sinclair
There have been at least 254 DNA exonerations in this country, according to the Innocence Project of New York. Each new DNA exoneration cast a dark shadow over the nation’s criminal justice system, particularly its judicial system. These exonerations are not only a barometer for measuring the imperfections of our system of justice but the failings of its adversarial nature either through law enforcement misconduct or “tunnel vision,” prosecutorial zeal or ineffective defense representation. It is a shame each of us involved the justice system must endure, a constant reminder that we can all do better; that we must do better. more...
May 15, 2010
THE FLAWS OF TEXAS’ EXPUNCTION STATUTE
Client Acquitted by Jury but Still Branded by Criminal Records, Background Checks
By: Houston Criminal Attorney John Floyd and Paralegal Billy Sinclair
In 2008 and 2009, The John T. Floyd Law Firm won three acquittals in the cases of Michael Serges, whose ordeal in the Harris County court system was the subject of a Houston Press feature story reporter Chris Vogel. more...
April 29, 2010
THE DANGERS OF CRIMINAL IDENTIFICATIONS
Legislatively Mandated Innocence Commission to Review Claims of Wrongful Convictions and Bring Accountability for Wrongful Convictions Needed
By: Houston Criminal Attorney John Floyd and Paralegal Billy Sinclair
There have been 252 DNA exonerations in this country through April 2010. Seventy-five percent of those were the result of mistaken identification. KHOU television in Houston reported recently 85% of Texas’ DNA exonerations—the most in the nation—involved mistaken identification. more...
April 16, 2010
TEXAS COURT OF CRIMINAL APPEALS STRIKES BALANCE FOR RULE OF LAW
Wilson v. State; Court Reverses Conviction Obtained After Finding Investigator Used False Fingerprint Lab Report to Obtain Confession
By: Houston Criminal Attorney John Floyd and Paralegal Billy Sinclair
It was New Year’s Day, 2006. Ronald Wilson called 911 to report he had discovered a man’s body on a San Antonio street while walking with his son. The police responded to the call and found the body of Amos Gutierrez who had been killed with a single fatal gunshot. The police also found a magazine clip near Gutierrez’s body. The investigation into Gutierrez’s death quickly revealed information implicating Wilson in the crime. He was arrested on misdemeanor charges. 1/ more...
March 8, 2010
TEXAS DEATH PENALTY PROCEDURE UNCONSTITUTIONAL?
Judge Acknowledges Innocent People Have Likely been Executed
Harris County Criminal District Court Judge Kevin Fine on Thursday, March 4, 2010, created a tsunami of controversy in the Texas legal community when he reportedly made a comment that he was declaring the state’s death penalty unconstitutional. The comment was made during a hearing on a motion filed by defense attorneys in the case of John Edward Green Jr. who is facing a capital murder charge. What Judge Fine actually did was to declare Article 37.071 of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure unconstitutional which is the statute that outlines the procedures for imposing the death sentence in this state. more...
February 26, 210
PROBLEMS WITH POSITIVE IDENTIFICATIONS
Leading Cause of Wrongful Convictions: Mistaken Identification by Eyewitnesses
By: Houston Criminal Attorney John Floyd and Paralegal Billy Sinclair
There have been 251 innocent people exonerated in this country by DNA evidence over the last two decades. The most disturbing aspect of this phenomenon of “convicting the innocent” is that more than 75 percent of those convictions involved mistaken identifications (according to the New York-based Innocence Project)—one or more witnesses pointing a finger of guilt at the wrong person. What is even more disturbing is that at least one-third of these mistaken identification cases involved two or more witnesses. more...
February 24, 2010
A “TIP OF THE HAT” FOR A JOB WELL DONE:
Court Recommends New Trial for Man Sentenced to Life in Prison for Capital Murder After Finding State’s Expert Testimony Incompetent
By: Houston Criminal Lawyer John Floyd and Paralegal Billy Sinclair
We have blogged rather extensively about the “convict at any costs” agenda which has ruled the Harris County District Attorney’s Office for the past three decades. “Convict at any costs” means the frequent use of fabricated forensic evidence, knowingly allowing perjured testimony into a criminal trial, withholding exculpatory evidence from defendants (particularly those known to be innocent), and injecting race in its death penalty decision-making. more...
December 19, 2009
THE REAL DANGER OF EXTRANEOUS OFFENSE EVIDENCE
Man Convicted on 2 Counts Indecency with a Child Found Actually Innocent After Nearly Two Decades in Prison: Extraneous Evidence False, Expert Testimony Wrong.
By: Houston Criminal Attorney John Floyd and Paralegal Billy Sinclair
We have written on numerous occasions about the dangers of “extraneous offense evidence” when allowed into evidence in a criminal trial. What is extraneous offense evidence? more...
December 8, 2009
MORE EVIDENCE OF BAD EVIDENCE
Criminal Defense Attorneys Must Request and Analyze Procedures for Testing, Accepted Protocols and Handling of Forensic Evidence
By: Houston Criminal Attorney John T. Floyd and Paralegal Billy Sinclair
A criminal defense attorney’s worst nightmare is that the prosecution will rely upon bad evidence to convict his/her client. Defending against relevant, admissible evidence is difficult enough, but there is no real defense against shoddy law enforcement’s collection, processing, and storage of the evidence the prosecution will rely upon in criminal cases. The Houston City Police Department (“HPD”) has a long, sordid history of destroying, botching, and even manufacturing false evidence in criminal cases. more...
November 29, 2009
TEXAS FORENSIC SCIENCE COMMISSION LACKS CREDIBILITY
Governor’s Sacking of Commission’s Head Stalls Review of Junk Science Convictions
By: Houston Criminal Attorney John Floyd and Paralegal Billy Sinclair
The Texas Legislature created the Forensic Science Commission (“FSC”) in 2005 to investigate what the Texas Monthly called “scientific negligence and misconduct.” The legislature acted following the February 2004 execution of Cameron Todd Willingham and the October 2004 decision by Pecos County District Attorney Ori White to free Ernest Willis from capital murder charges. Willingham and Willis had both been convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death for murders they allegedly committed by setting fires to dwellings in which five people were killed—two women in Willis’ case and Willingham’s three young daughters. The forensic arson evidence used to convict both men was virtually identical. In fact, as Michael Hall wrote recently in Texas Monthly, these two condemned men had a lot in common: more...
October 5, 2009
TEXAS GOV. RICK PERRY IMPEDES INQUIRY ABOUT WHETHER TEXAS EXECUTED AN INNOCENT MAN
Governor’s abrupt Dismissal of Chairman, Two Members of Texas Forensic Science Commission on Eve of Hearing Smacks of Political Cover-up
By: Houston Criminal Defense Lawyer John Floyd and Paralegal Billy Sinclair
It is one thing for a governor to have possibly presided over the execution of an innocent man but quite another for that governor to effectively shut down an official investigation into whether the forensic evidence used convict the man was reliable. more...
September 17, 2009
DISTRICT ATTORNEY’S OFFICE DOESN’T CARE IF CYNTHIA CASH IS ACTUALLY INNOCENT
The Philosophy of Convict at any Cost Continues in Harris County
By: Houston Criminal Lawyer John Floyd and Paralegal Billy Sinclair
Dr. Patricia Moore is the former associate medical examiner in Harris County. The Houston Chronicle (Sept. 14, 2009) reported that the doctor has been “repeatedly disciplined for failing to follow procedures and for favoring the prosecution in 1998 and 1999” in child death cases. more...
August 12, 2009
SIXTH INNOCENT HARRIS COUNTY MAN FREED
Hall of Shame: Texas Leads Nation in DNA Exonerations
By: Houston Criminal Attorney John Floyd and Paralegal Billy Sinclair
That the Houston City Police Department’s Crime Lab was a lawless, rogue unit serving the “convict at any costs” philosophy of the Harris County District Attorney’s Office during the Johnny Holmes and Charles “Chuck” Rosenthal administrations, between 1980 and 2005, is no longer a subject of serious debate. Dozens, possibly hundreds, of innocent people—mostly poor minorities charged with homicides or sex crimes—were railroaded off to Texas prisons based on fabricated (or at best faulty) forensic evidence supplied by the Crime Lab and/or due to mistaken identification secured to corrupt pretrial photo lineup procedures. more...
June 30, 2009
THE DNA FALLOUT CONTINUES
District Attorney’s Office of the Third Judicial District v. Osborne; U.S. Supreme Court Blocks Ability for Wrongfully Convicted to Prove Innocence
By: Houston Criminal Attorney John Floyd and Paralegal Billy Sinclair
George Rodriquez spent 17 years in the Texas prison system for a crime he did not commit. He was 26 years of age in 1987 when he was wrongfully convicted by a Harris County jury for the rape of a 14-year-old girl. The jury based its decision on a critical piece of forensic evidence; a pubic hair found in the victim’s underwear. A serologist with the Houston City Police Department’s Crime Lab determined that the pubic hair did not belong to another suspect in the rape case, Isidro Yanez. The serologist testified at Rodriquez’s trial, saying that while his forensic testing ruled out Yanez, it did not rule out Rodriquez. more...
June 17, 2009
DNA CHICKENS COME HOME TO ROOST
City of Houston Sued; Disgraced Crime Lab on Trial After Wrongfully Convicted Man Exonerated After 17 Years in Prison
By: Houston Criminal Defense Attorney John Floyd and Paralegal Billy Sinclair
George Rodriquez was a 26-year-old young man in 1987 when he was convicted of raping a 14-year-old girl in Harris County. A critical piece of evidence that led to his conviction was a pubic hair found in the girl’s underwear. A serologist with the Houston City Police Department’s crime lab, who we now know had a history of fabricating evidence to suit local prosecutorial and law enforcement needs, determined that the hair did not belong to a suspect named Isidro Yanez but the serologist did not eliminate Rodriquez as the owner of the hair. Seventeen years later DNA, which was not used as evidence in criminal trials in 1987, established that the hair in fact belonged to Yanez and not to Rodriquez. more...
June 11, 2009
THE HARRIS COUNTY CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM
Past Abuses, Hopes for Better Future
By: Houston Criminal Attorney John Floyd and Paralegal Billy Sinclair
Three recent stories in the Houston Chronicle exposed serious flaws in the Harris County criminal justice system. The first story concerned a 60-year prison term imposed on Andrew Wayne Hawthorne, a serial child molester. Hawthorne molested an eight year old boy in the fall of 2002. A crime for which a wrongly accused man, Ricardo Rachell, was convicted and sentenced to prison. Ricardo Rachell was convicted for this sexual assault and spent more than six years in the Texas prison system before readily available DNA evidence at the time of his arrest was finally tested and established his innocence. more...
May 1, 2009
FALSE FORENSICS: AN ATTORNEY’S WORST NIGHTMARE, INJUSTICE TO US ALL
Gary Alvin Richard; Wrongly Convicted Man Released after 22 Years
By: Houston Criminal Defense Attorney John Floyd and Paralegal Billy Sinclair
They are called “experts.” Prosecutors parade them into court dressed in respectful suit ware and carry resumes packed with a laundry list of degrees. They then testify about the science of “forensic evidence” in ways that more often confuse rather than clarify the issues being tried in a criminal case. Worst yet, many of these “CSI” experts testify falsely, or in misleading fashion, about test results they either did not perform correctly or whose results they manufactured to fit a given prosecutorial objective. Incompetent or unethical “forensic experts” are a criminal defense attorney’s worst nightmare. more...
April 16, 2009
THE CONTINUING SAGA OF THE WRONGFULLY CONVICTED
Factors Contributing to Wrongful Convictions and Unjust Imprisonment
By: Houston Criminal Attorney John Floyd and Paralegal Billy Sinclair
In a March 16, 2009 article (“Cold Shoulder from Lubbock Officials in Cole Case”), we wrote extensively about the tragic wrongful conviction of Timothy Cole. A military veteran and college student, this son of a school teacher and Bell Helicopter manager was convicted in 1986 for the December 1985 rape of a Texas Tech student in Lubbock, Texas. Despite vigorous protestations of innocence from Cole and his family, Cole was convicted and sentenced to 25 years in prison where he died fourteen years later. more...
March 22, 2009
THE RACHELL REPORT
Harris County District Attorney’s Office Discloses “Cascading, System-Wide Breakdown” Led to Wrongful Conviction and 6 Years Imprisonment of Innocent Man
By: Houston Criminal Defense Lawyer John Floyd and Paralegal Billy Sinclair
On December 14, 2008, we posted a blog titled The Conflicting Faces of Crime. One of those faces involved the wrongful conviction of Ricardo Rachell in 2003 for the aggravated sexual assault of an eight year old boy. Rachell was released from custody in December 2008 after he was exonerated by DNA evidence. The Harris County District Attorney’s Office and the Houston Police Department undertook a joint investigation to determine what went wrong in the Rachell case. On March 12, 2009, the two law enforcement agencies released the “Rachell Report” (“report”) which concluded that Rachell’s wrongful conviction was the result of a “cascading, system-wide breakdown.” more...
October 29, 2008
DNA EXONERATIONS QUESTION EYEWITNESS TESTIMONY
By: Criminal Houston Criminal Defense Attorney John T. Floyd and Senior Paralegal Billy Sinclair
The Dallas Morning News (October 2008) ran two articles written by Steve McGonigle and Jennifer Emily that linked 19 DNA exonerations to faulty eyewitness testimony. These two investigative reporters opened their series with the tragic story of Wiley Fountain who spent 15 years in the Texas prison system wrongfully convicted of rape: more...
August 22, 2008
DNA FREES ANOTHER INMATE WRONGFULLY CONVICTED OF RAPE
By: Criminal Houston Criminal Defense Attorney John T. Floyd and Senior Paralegal Billy Sinclair
18 years ago Robert McClendon, then 34 years of age, was convicted and sentenced to 15 years to life in Franklin County, Ohio for allegedly raping a 10-year-old girl. Prosecutors charged that McClendon took a 10-year-old relative from her backyard and drove her to another house where he raped her. There was no physical evidence linking him to the alleged rape. The prosecution relied almost exclusively on the testimony of the child victim. The prosecution’s belief that it had the “right man” was influenced by the fact that McClendon, when he was 19 years of age, had been convicted of “corruption of a minor” involving consensual sex with a 15-year-old girl. more...
March 13, 2007
COURT ALLOWS WRONGFUL CONVICTION LAWSUIT TO PROCEED
By: Criminal Houston Criminal Defense Attorney John T. Floyd and Senior Paralegal Billy Sinclair
Dennis Patrick Brown, an African-American was convicted in Covington, St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana in 1984 for the crime of aggravated rape of a white woman and given a mandatory life sentence without the benefit of parole. Twenty years later he was exonerated by DNA evidence and released from custody. See: Brown v. Miller, 2008 LEXIS 4169 (5th Cir., Feb. 27, 2008) More...
June 22, 2007
HOUSTON CRIME LAB NEEDS SPECIAL MASTER
By: Criminal Houston Criminal Defense Attorney John T. Floyd and Senior Paralegal Billy Sinclair
Two years ago the “crime lab” for the Houston Police Department was a national scandal. Its shoddy analysis and unprofessional investigation protocol had apparently resulted in the conviction of scores of innocent criminal defendants. Mayor Bob White vowed to clean up the disgraceful mess and restore law enforcement integrity to the crime laboratory. Michael Bromwich, a former U.S. Justice Department inspector, was assigned the task of investigating the crime lab, its procedures, and issue recommendations. Bromwich fulfilled his commission on June 13, 2007 when he issued a 400-page report whose recommendations were not readily embraced by the very city officials who pushed for Bromwich’s investigation in 2005. More...
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