The Netflix series “Making a Murderer” almost seems echoed by Texas’ Board of Disciplinary Appeals’ decision to disbar a former prosecutor who lied and hid evidence in a death penalty case.
Texas Disbars Former Prosecutor, Charles Sebesta
The Texas Board of Disciplinary Appeals affirmed a lower decision to disbar Charles Sebesta for his conduct in convicting Graves several decades ago. According to AlJazeera America, Mr. Graves spent 18 years in prison – 12 of them waiting on death row.
Sebesta was the prosecutor in the Texas Arson-Murder case. He doggedly pursued a case against another party, Robert Carter and attempted to pursued Carter into either testifying or admitting that Graves was an accomplice in the crime.
Record for Exonerations
According to the National Registry of Exonerations, 2015 was a record year: 149 this year in the United States and the territories. The timing is serendipitous (or perhaps even related) to increased national condemnation of false convictions that have put people away for crimes they didn’t commit.
The exoneration number can be looked at as either good news or as bad news. From the brighter angle, it probably means that there is a stronger effort to exonerate persons who’ve wrongly been convicted of crimes. From a darker angle, it either points to an increased agenda by prosecutors in recent years to bypass justice or it means that juries were too quick to jump at the wrong man. Either way, nobody really wins.
Related Resources:
- DA Disbarred for Sending Texas Man to Death Row (CBS News.com)
- Amazing ‘Making a Murderer’ Doc Shines Harsh Light on Lawyers (FindLaw’s Greedy Associates)
- U. of Arizona Opens LLB Program in China (FindLaw’s Greedy Associates)
- Non-J.D. Program Enrollment Is Way up in Law Schools (FindLaw’s Greedy Associates)
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