Alfred Dewayne Brown was declared “actually innocent” today by the Harris County District Attorney’s (DA) Office. DA Kim Ogg accepted the findings of a special prosecutor appointed by her office in May 2018 to investigate the case.
Brown was released from death row in 2015 after prosecutors dismissed the charges against him. In 2014, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (CCA) overturned his conviction due to evidence of prosecutorial misconduct. Since then, he has fought for compensation from the State of Texas for his wrongful incarceration. Although phone records withheld by the prosecution corroborated Brown’s alibi, he was not declared officially innocent (until today) and was thereby ineligible for compensation.
Brown spent a decade on death row for the murder of Houston Police Officer Charles R. Clark at a check-cashing business in 2003. He is the 13th person exonerated and released from death row in Texas. Nationally, 164 people have been exonerated and released from death row.
Read the statement from the Harris County District Attorney’s Office here:
https://app.dao.hctx.net/special-prosecutors-report-state-texas-v-alfred-dewayne-brown
Read the full report from Special Prosecutor John Raley here:
http://2019-03-01 Report of Special Prosecutor re Brown_Final_.pdf 2019-03-01 Report of Special Prosecutor re Brown_Final_.pdf
Read coverage of today’s developments from the Texas Tribune: https://www.texastribune.org/2019/03/01/alfred-dewayne-brown-innocent-death-row/