Court overturns death sentence due to ‘withheld evidence’

Conviction overturned after record of crucial phone call finally turns up

Alfred Dewayne Brown was convicted of murdering a police officer in a 2003 shooting that was  allegedly a robbery that went wrong.
Alfred Dewayne Brown was convicted of murdering a police officer in a 2003 shooting that was allegedly a robbery that went wrong.

The murder conviction of a man on death row in Texas has been overturned after the state's criminal appeals court found prosecutors withheld evidence.

Alfred Dewayne Brown was convicted of murdering a police officer in a 2003 shooting that was allegedly a three-man robbery that went wrong. A jury sentenced Brown to death in 2005.

Pittsburgh-based defence firm K&L Gates searched for six years for records of a call Brown said he made on the morning of the murder. Prosecutors said he and his alleged co-conspirators were watching news coverage of the robbery at about 10am on April 3rd, 2003. Brown said he was at his girlfriend’s apartment and had made a phone call to her employer.

A record of the call was finally found when a detective was cleaning out his garage last year. Prosecutors said the failure to turn over evidence to defence attorneys was just a mistake. Prosecutors are not saying whether they will re-try Brown’s case. – (Guardian)