From: ShunkW <shunkw@sbcglobal.net>
Date: Sun, Nov 14, 2010 at 11:46 PM
Subject: Texas death row inmate freed after prosecutors drop capital murder charges in 1992 slaying of family
To: ShunkW <shunkw@sbcglobal.net>
Texas death row inmate freed after prosecutors drop capital murder charges in 1992 slaying of family
Associated Press
HOUSTON – A man sent to Texas death row for the 1992 slaughter of a central Texas family became a free man Wednesday after prosecutors dropped the capital murder charges against him.
Anthony Graves walked out of the Burleson County Jail in Caldwell on Wednesday afternoon after 16 years behind bars.
He had been convicted of helping Robert Earl Carter kill Bobbie Joyce Davis; her 16-year-old daughter, Nicole; and four grandchildren between the ages of 4 and 9 in the family's Somerville home. The family was stabbed, shot and bludgeoned with a hammer and their house doused with gasoline and set ablaze.
The only evidence tying Graves to the killings was Carter's testimony, and Carter recanted just before his 1998 execution. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans overturned Graves' conviction in 2006, ruling that prosecutors withheld evidence and elicited false testimony. Authorities decided to retry Graves, and he had been in the county jail since then.
In 2007, a special prosecutor told a judge that crucial evidence was missing and might never be found in Graves' case. The missing evidence includes the skull caps and clothing of the victims, special prosecutor Patrick Batchelor told Burleson County District Judge Reva Towslee-Corbett in Caldwell.
Other missing evidence from the original trial includes fingerprints, bullets from the victims, a bloody hammer and a hunting knife, Batchelor said.
Since Graves was arrested in 1992, a new jail has been built and key police personnel have changed.
"Because of the change of jails and personnel, we may not have a definitive answer, except to say that they are gone," Batchelor said.
A report in the October issue of Texas Monthly magazine raised new questions about the lack of evidence tying Carter to the crimes.
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Palash Biswas
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