Nig Cop killer found guilty

[Unregistered]

http://www.click2houston.com/news/5127307/detail.html

Jurors To Deliberate Cop Killer's Punishment
Conviction Carries Life Or Death Sentence

POSTED: 3:11 pm CDT October 19, 2005
UPDATED: 5:39 pm CDT October 19, 2005

HOUSTON -- Jurors are expected to begin deliberating the punishment for a convicted cop killer Thursday, KPRC Local 2 reported.

Alfred Dewayne Brown, 23, was found guilty of capital murder Tuesday in the April 3, 2003, slaying of officer Charles R. Clark, 45, at a check-cashing store.

The punishment phase of the trial began Wednesday. Brown could be sentenced to death by lethal injection or life in prison. Final argu

ments are expected Thursday morning.

Brown did not react when the guilty verdict was read but Clark's family hugged and c
ried inside the courtroom. Attorneys and relatives declined to comment on the verdict, saying they would make statements after the punishment phase of the trial was over.

Alfred Dewayne Brown

Prosecutors said Brown shot Clark in the head as the patrolman tried to stop a holdup at an Ace America's Cash Express on Loop 610 South in southeast Houston.

Store clerk Alfredia Jones, 27, was also killed.

Clark was killed the day before his 20th anniversary and within weeks of his scheduled retirement with HPD, and Jones had returned to work from maternity leave the day of the shooting.

Brown is the second man to stand trial in the incident.

Elijah Dwayne Joubert, 26, was convicted last year of capital murder for Jo
nes&
#39; slaying and sentenced to death.

Dashan V. Glaspie, 23, has pleaded guilty to aggravated robbery in a deal limiting his sentence to 30 years if he testifies truthfully against his coh
orts, prosecutors said.

Clark's pistol jammed after he fired one shot. Prosecutors said Brown fired both shots that hit Clark -- one grazed his shoulder and the other struck his head at close range.

 

[Whitebear]

Elijah Dwayne Joubert, 26, was convicted last year of capital murder for Jones' slaying and sentenced to death.


Man Guilty Of Murder In Deaths Of Officer, Store Clerk

Elijah Joubert is the first of three suspects to be tried for the murders of Houston Police Officer Charles Clark, 45, and check-cashing clerk Alfredia Jones, 27. He could get the death penalty upon sentencing.

In April 2003, Joubert and two others shot Clark and Jones during a robbery at Ace America's Cash Express in the 5700 block of the South Loop East. Jones opened the store that morning and Clark was the first officer on the scene.

 

[voiceofreason]

http://www.khou.com/story/news/crime/2014/11/05/houston-man-on-death-row-wins-new-trial/18537887/

A man on death row for killing an HPD officer wins appeal
6:59 p.m. CST November 5, 2014

HOUSTON - Alfred Dwayne Brown says he is innocent despite his conviction and death sentence for the killing of Houston Police Officer Charles Clark in April 2003.

Now the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals says there is evidence he might be right and it is evidence that Harris County prosecutors may have had during his trial and did not share with the defense.

"This thing is outrageous for a lot of reasons," said KHOU 11 News Legal Expert Gerald Treece.

Alfred Brown was convicted in 2005 for the murder of HPD officer Charles Clark during an attempted check cashing store robbery in 2003.

He said all along that he was not there, he was with a girlfriend at her apartment but he had no proof.

Just last year, a retired HPD detective found a box of evidence from the case in his garage. In that box was a phone record that could prove Brown's whereabouts. That record was requested by the lead prosecutor in the case.

"You don't get a fair trial if the government knows that your alibi might be true but does not give you that evidence that helps you," said Treece.

In a statement, Harris County District Attorney Devon Anderson said that office, "…discovered that the defense was not provided material information at trial. As a result of this review, our office agreed that Mr. Brown should receive relief in his case so that justice could be served."

The DA's office supported the request for a new trial, "I will now carefully review and evaluate the case to determine the appropriate proceedings," said Harris County District Attorney Devon Anderson.

The difference now is that Brown has something, "It is a good piece of evidence in his favor it may give her second thoughts," said Dave Atwood of the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty.

Brown will have to wait. Anthony Graves knows something about that, "I don't know if it gets any worse than what I went through," Graves said.

He spent 18 years behind bars, on death row, even had execution dates set twice for a crime he did not commit, "Unfortunately it is the culture. It is the culture to win at all costs."

Graves has had involvement in the Brown case, talking to the girlfriend who told him she was threatened during Grand Jury testimony, "What she revealed to me was really shocking but not surprising."

That witness has now recanted her testimony and now it is the DA's move.

 

[Arheel's Uncle]

HOUSTON - Alfred Dwayne Brown

They know he killed the officer.​

Ex-death row inmate Alfred Brown 'bluffed his way out of prison,' county alleges

The Houston man let off of death row after more than a decade may have "bluffed his way...

www.chron.com

"Brown's own records preserved a crucial fact that he withheld from the courts during his bid to be released—the call he claims he made from his girlfriend's apartment was a three-way call that places him exactly where the jury heard he was when they convicted him. Brown's call originated from the apartment of a woman named Patricia Williams as Brown and his two co-murderers gathered with her to destroy evidence and watch news coverage of their exploits."
Brown always said that a landline call he made from his girlfriend's house around the time of the killings would show he wasn't there, but officials said they had no record of the call. In 2008 former prosecutor Dan Rizzo even signed a sworn affidavit saying he did not withhold any phone records that could have been used in Brown's defense.

Texas Supreme Court rules Alfred Dewayne Brown must be compensated for his wrongful imprisonment

In 2015, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals tossed out Brown’s conviction and death sentence in the 2003 murder of a Houston police officer. Phone records found in the prosecution’s possession, but not shared with the defense at trial, supported Brown’s alibi that he was at his girlfriend’s...

www.texastribune.org

Texas Supreme Court rules Alfred Dewayne Brown must be compensated for his wrongful imprisonment​

In 2015, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals tossed out Brown’s conviction and death sentence in the 2003 murder of a Houston police officer. Phone records found in the prosecution’s possession, but not shared with the defense at trial, supported Brown’s alibi that he was at his girlfriend’s house during the crime.


by Jolie McCullough

Dec. 18, 2020
9 AM Central
The Texas Supreme Court has ruled that the state was wrong to deny Alfred Dewayne Brown payment. Credit: Miguel Gutierrez Jr./The Texas Tribune

Alfred Dewayne Brown will finally be compensated up to nearly $2 million for his wrongful imprisonment, after spending 12 years behind bars and nearly a decade on Texas' death row for a crime the courts have since determined he didn't commit. On Friday, the Texas Supreme Court ruled that the state was wrong to deny him payment.

The ruling follows a lengthy fight over Brown’s innocence, a determination made by prosecutors and the trial court that Houston police and top state officials have rejected.

The top Texas court did not wade into the argument over Brown's innocence, but instead rejected the premise that the state's top accountant can make final decisions over who does and doesn't deserve wrongful imprisonment payment.

"You have the comptroller acting like an appellate judge," Texas Supreme Court Justice Eva Guzman said at a hearing in October. Guzman wrote Friday's ruling.

The court's ruling stated that Brown's application for compensation "checked all the statutory boxes, and as a purely ministerial matter, he is eligible for compensation."

In 2015, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals tossed out Brown’s conviction and death sentence in the 2003 murder of a Houston police officer. Phone records found in the prosecution’s possession, but not shared with the defense at trial, supported Brown’s alibi that he was at his girlfriend’s house during the crime.

At first, Brown was freed from prison but not eligible for a state payout for his wrongful imprisonment. A state law allows those who are wrongfully imprisoned to get compensation for the years they were behind bars, but Brown didn’t qualify for the payment because he was not declared “actually innocent” in the courts.

In 2019, that changed. Harris County prosecutors further reviewed the case, and the court signed off on his innocence claim, seemingly paving the way for Brown to receive $80,000 for each year he was wrongfully in prison, plus an equal amount paid out in smaller payments over the course of his life. For Brown, this totals nearly $1 million as a lump sum, plus another nearly $1 million paid throughout his life.

But the Texas comptroller, after receiving advice from the Texas attorney general, denied Brown’s claim for the money. On Friday afternoon, a spokesperson for the comptroller said the office would comply with the court's order and "begin the process of compensating Mr. Brown." The Texas attorney general's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Houston police union officials have long rejected the ruling of Brown’s innocence, and the chief of police said he was concerned with the innocence ruling. Last June, Attorney General Ken Paxton took the rare step of intervening in the monetary discussion by asking the comptroller to deny Brown’s compensation claim. In an email obtained by The Texas Tribune, Paxton told Comptroller Glenn Hegar he had “serious concern” with the application and said there was still credible evidence Brown killed Houston police officer Charles Clark.

He also said to the comptroller the trial court may not have had jurisdiction to declare Brown innocent after it had already dismissed the case years earlier.

Days later, Hegar’s office denied Brown’s application for wrongful imprisonment compensation, echoing Paxton’s argument that it was not clear that the Harris County court had the jurisdiction to issue the innocence ruling.

But Brown’s attorneys argued to the Texas Supreme Court, and the justices agreed, that the comptroller exceeded his authority by making such judicial determinations. His job, the Texas high court ruled, is to verify the compensation application documents are sound and assess the payout amount.

“The Comptroller’s purely ministerial duty to determine eligibility does not include looking behind the verified documents to review the district court’s factual and legal conclusions de novo,” Guzman wrote in the court’s ruling Friday. “We direct the Comptroller to … compensate Brown for the time he was wrongfully imprisoned.”

Neal Manne, one of Brown's attorneys, said Friday that his client was overwhelmed with the court's ruling, hoping it will be the final chapter in his tragic story.

"What was important to him was having validation that he really was innocent and that what happened to him was really unjust," Manne said. "He’s been out of prison for five and a half years, and now finally he’s got confirmation from the highest court in the state that he’s entitled to this last small measure of justice."