Miscarried Justice

Supreme Court to consider DNA in death row appeal
Ruling could affect the cases of other inmates facing execution


By CHARLES LANE
Washington Post

LUTTRELL, TENN. - It has been nearly two decades since the body of Carolyn Muncey was discovered under some brush, just 100 yards from her small cabin in this Appalachian hamlet.

The 29-year-old mother of two had been savagely beaten, and her death shook a tiny tobacco-growing community to its roots.

Not long after her slaying, authorities charged Paul Gregory House, a paroled rapist from Utah who lived nearby, with her murder.

In February 1986, a local jury convicted him and sentenced him to death.

Long after the trial, DNA tests were performed on Muncey's clothes. They proved that body fluids on the clothes belonged not to House, as authorities believed and told the jury, but to the victim's husband, Hubert Muncey Jr.

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in House's case, the first in which a death row inmate has come to the high court with DNA evidence claiming innocence. The justices' intervention takes place at a time when DNA evidence may be changing the way Americans think about criminal justice, including the death penalty; last week Virginia Democratic Gov. Mark Warner ordered DNA testing in the case of a man executed in 1992, to see whether he was wrongly put to death.

The Supreme Court has never squarely ruled that executing an innocent person is unconstitutional. Appellate courts do not usually concern themselves with new evidence, instead focusing on whether a defendant received a fair trial.

House's lawyers want the court to rule that, in the age of DNA testing, the Constitution guarantees those with particularly strong claims of innocence a chance to seek a new trial, even if the normal appeals process has run out. At a minimum, they say, House is entitled to a new hearing under existing court precedent, which allows death row prisoners with strong claims of innocence to raise separate constitutional issues that would otherwise be barred.

But Tennessee officials argue that House's case is about a duly convicted killer denying the people of Luttrell justice for Muncey's death. While DNA testing may have knocked a hole in the state's case, they argue, its foundations are still solid.

No matter which side wins, the court's ruling could have consequences for the ability of other death row inmates to contest their convictions in federal court.

Two Luttrell women, sisters Penny Letner and Kathy Parker, say that a drunken Hubert Muncey Jr. visited them in 1985, telling them tearfully that he had struck and killed his wife in a moment of anger. Muncey denies any involvement in the murder.

Judge Gilbert S. Merritt of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit, based in Cincinnati, said that in his view the refutation of the semen evidence destroyed the state's entire theory of the crime.

Andrea Yates

(CNN) -- Lawyers for Andrea Yates, the Texas woman convicted nearly three years ago of drowning her children, said Thursday they won't seek her release from a prison psychiatric ward following a court's decision Thursday to overturn her murder convictions.

The Texas 1st Court of Appeals ruled that the convictions should be reversed because an expert witness for the state, Dr. Park Dietz, presented false testimony when he said Yates may have been influenced by an episode of the "Law & Order" television program. No such episode ever aired.

In its decision, the court said the testimony by Dietz "could have affected the judgment of the jury."

George Parnham, Yates' lead attorney, told reporters his client was "surprised and not unpleased" by the ruling. But since Yates -- who had suffered from severe postpartum depression -- is receiving medical treatment in prison, "We are not going to seek her immediate release from where she is.

(She obviously killed the children, but the prosecution lied against her. It is my opinion that she is too mentally ill to go to prison. A state hospital is the place for her). -edgar

Crime lab investigator to target specific cases
Focus will be on those in which team suspects injustice, he says


By STEVE MCVICKER
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle

In the wake of new revelations of incompetence ?- or perhaps worse ?- in the Houston Police Department crime laboratory, the investigator hired to get to the bottom of the scandal says he is sharpening his focus to target DNA cases with known problems.

Michael Bromwich told the City Council's Public Safety Committee on Tuesday that the fine-tuning was necessary in light of his report last week that found errors in almost one-third of the lab's DNA and serology cases selected by random sampling.

"The rate of error is so high, little would be accomplished by doing a representative, or random, sampling as originally (planned)," he said.

The former U.S. Justice Department inspector general also expressed frustration about the lack of cooperation by some former lab workers, saying it might take subpoena power to force them to talk with his team.

But he acknowledged that he is not likely to get the authority that could help him determine whether all of the testing errors resulted from honest mistakes, or whether some results may have been tailored to fit certain suspects.

Calling the problems in the DNA and serology labs "serious and pervasive," including the failure to report evidence crucial to the defense, Bromwich said his investigators will "target specific cases in which we believe there may have been injustice committed."

His team now will focus on 56 DNA cases that outside labs found to have problems. HPD hired those labs in a massive retesting effort that began after an independent audit found widespread problems at the department's DNA lab three years ago.

Jan. 19, 2006, 7:41AM
DNA test to set man free after 18 years
Houston lawyer pushed for review of evidence, which eliminates man in 1986 assault


By RENÉE C. LEE
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle

The persistence of a Houston attorney, who kept digging for DNA evidence to clear his client, will lead to the release of a Montgomery County man who has served 18 years in prison on a sexual assault conviction.

DNA test results released Tuesday eliminated Arthur M. Mumphrey, 42, as the rapist in a Feb. 28, 1986, attack on a 13-year-old girl in the Dobbin area, about 20 miles west of Conroe.

Mumphrey is scheduled to leave the Rufe Jordan Unit in Pampa this week and return to Montgomery County for a Jan. 27 hearing, said his attorney Eric J. Davis. At the hearing, 359th State District Judge Kathleen Hamilton is expected to release him on a personal recognizance bond until he is granted a pardon, Davis said.

DNA Exonerates Fla. Man After 24 Years By MITCH STACY, Associated Press Writer




TAMPA, Fla. - Alan Crotzer stepped into the warm sunlight outside the courthouse Monday and raised his arms to the sky, celebrating his freedom after more than 24 years behind bars for crimes he didn't commit.

A judge freed the 45-year-old Crotzer after DNA testing and other evidence convinced prosecutors he was not involved in the 1981 armed robbery and rapes that led to his 130-year prison sentence.

"It's been a long time coming," said Crotzer, his black hair graying at the temples. "Thank God for this day."

Crotzer walked free more than three years after he wrote to the Innocence Project in New York, a legal clinic that seeks to exonerate inmates through DNA testing.

"Are you ready for what you waited so long to hear?" Circuit Judge J. Rogers Padgett said to Crotzer during the brief hearing. "Motion granted ?- you're a free man."

Members of Crotzer's family and other courtroom spectators clapped and cheered as a bailiff removed the shackles from his wrists and ankles.

Prosecutor Mike Sinacore congratulated him. "Trying to fix an error in the system is just as important as trying to convict someone who is guilty," he said.

DNA has been used to clear at least 172 people wrongly convicted of crimes in 31 states since 1989, according to the Innocence Project.

Crotzer and brothers Douglas James and Corlenzo James were convicted of robbing a Tampa family in 1981. Douglas James and Crotzer were also found guilty of kidnapping and raping a 38-year-old woman and her 12-year-old girl at gunpoint.

A victim picked Crotzer out of a photo lineup. But Douglas James says Crotzer is innocent. He said he and his brother were the rapists and a childhood friend was their accomplice.

Crotzer, who has never held a paying job, said he will go live with a sister in St. Petersburg and try to find work. His attorneys said they will seek compensation from the state for him.

In December, Gov. Jeb Bush signed a bill allowing Wilton Dedge to receive $2 million for the 22 years he spent in prison for a rape he did not commit. Dedge, 44, also was exonerated by DNA evidence.

"There ain't no compensation for what they done to me," said Crotzer, whose mother died while he was in prison. "But I'm not bitter."

Polls show most Americans support the death penalty, but their support is waning. That decline, from 80 percent in 1994 to around 64 percent now, is attributed to the frequency with which legal aid organizations have used DNA testing to prove miscarriages of justice.

The Innocence Project, a nonprofit legal clinic that works to exonerate the wrongly convicted, lists on its Web site 172 DNA exonerations since 1989, including two Texans pardoned for actual innocence last month by Gov. Rick Perry: Entre Nax Karage, who served seven years of a life sentence for murder, and Keith E. Turner, who served four years of a 20-year sentence for aggravated sexual assault.

State lawmakers also are beginning to doubt the infallibility of capital justice. New Jersey legislators passed a moratorium on that state's criminal executions pending a review of the costs and fairness of application. Acting Gov. Richard J. Codey signed the bill Jan. 12 before leaving office.

The state of Illinois maintains a moratorium on executions. Maryland had a moratorium but lifted it. The Associated Press reports that 12 of the 38 states that permit capital punishment have appointed death penalty study commissions.

Texas is not considering a moratorium on executions, but it should. This state's death row holds 410 prisoners; 19 were executed last year. That represented nearly a third of all U.S. executions in 2005. Yet the guilt of a number of Texas capital offenders, including one juvenile offender already put to death, is in dispute.

Death row inmate Anthony Graves was convicted of murder primarily on the testimony of a man who recanted many times over before Graves was executed in 2000 for his role in the crime. Ruben Cantu, executed in 1993, was 17 at the time of the murder for which he received the death penalty. Like Graves', Cantu's conviction was based almost purely on the now-recanted testimony of one man.

Harris County sends more people to death row than any other Texas jurisdiction. It remains to be seen how many of those convictions might have been tainted by the shoddy work of Houston Police Department crime lab investigators.

One might question how meaningful a moratorium on executions will be in New Jersey, where only 10 prisoners reside on death row and the last execution took place in 1963. There's no question, however, that taking a capital punishment time-out in Texas to examine disputed cases could avoid the ultimate miscarriage of justice.

Houston Chronicle

March 15, 2006, 8:00PM
State board unanimously recommends pardon for Mumphrey


By RENÉE C. LEE
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle

A state board has unanimously recommended that Gov. Rick Perry pardon Arthur Mumphrey, who was cleared of a sexual assault conviction after serving 18 years in prison.

A spokeswoman for the governor's office confirmed today that Perry had received the recommendation from the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles. The six-member board, which has one vacancy, sent its decision to Perry March 9 after reviewing Mumphrey's case.

Under state law, Perry can take as much time as he wants to make a decision.

Mumphrey could not be reached for comment, but his wife Angela was excited to hear the news today when contacted by the Chronicle. Neither she nor Mumphrey knew about the board's decision, she said.

''That's great. It's a blessing," she said.

Mumphrey's attorney Eric J. Davis, who is out of town on vacation, also learned of the news Wednesday from the Chronicle. ''I'm not surprised," Davis said. ''I know the governor will do the right thing."

The governor will release a statement when he makes a decision, said spokeswoman Rachael Novier.

A Montgomery County judge ordered Mumphrey's release from prison on Jan. 17 after DNA tests showed that he was not responsible for attacking a 13-year girl in a wooded area of Conroe on Feb. 28, 1986. A jury convicted him of aggravated sexual assault and the judge sentenced him to 35 years in prison on Aug. 12, 1986.

Forensic technology now used to test DNA in criminal cases was not available 20 years ago.

Tenacious work by Davis, who was hired by Mumphrey and his wife to reopen the case, led to the discovery of DNA evidence ?- a vaginal swap, a piece of the victim's panties and blood and saliva samples ?- in the case.

Davis found the DNA at the Texas Department of Public Safety's lab in Houston. He was initially told the lab had the evidence but when prosecutors contacted DPS, they were told the lab did not have it. Davis kept pursuing the matter until he finally reached a lab supervisor who found the samples stored in a refrigerator.

The test results ruled out Mumphrey as one of the two attackers.

Mumphrey's co-defendant, Steve Thomas, pleaded guilty in exchange for a 15-year sentence.

The Montgomery County District Attorney's office believes Mumphrey's younger brother, Charles Mumphrey, is the other attacker. Prosecutors said Charles Mumphrey confessed to a DA investigators the same week Arthur Mumphrey was released from prison. However, he cannot be charged in the case because the statute of limitation has expired.

Charles Mumphrey is serving time at Gist State Jail in Jefferson County on a one-year unauthorized use of a motor vehicle conviction.

A sample of Charles Mumphrey's DNA is being tested and compared with the original samples. Montgomery County Assistant District Attorney Marc Brumberger, who handles post-conviction cases, could not be reached Wednesday to comment on when the result will be available.

Meanwhile, Arthur Mumphrey, 42, who now lives in Houston, has found a job. He has been working a night shift at a Houston glass company for about a month, his wife said.

If Perry grants Mumphrey a pardon of innocence, he will be exonerated of the crime and his conviction will be erased.

To be considered for a such a pardon, the pardons board ''requires either evidence of actual innocence from at least two trial officials," according to board's Web site. In Mumphrey's case, the DA's office and Montgomery County State District Judge Kathleen Hamilton provided the evidence and findings of fact.

Brumberger immediately filed a request with the pardons board after Hamilton ruled that the DNA results were valid on Jan. 17.