House Criminal Jur. - HB 1032/HB 1527: Anthony Graves - April 29, 2015 — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:07thank you Mr chairman my name is Anthony
2. 0:09Grace I'm here representing myself and I
3. 0:12support the bill please proceed sir yes
4. 0:16sir back in
5. 0:191994 I was wrongfully convicted and
6. 0:22sentenced to death for Crime I knew
7. 0:25absolutely nothing
8. 0:27R and you say just a you know bad luck
9. 0:32but I can tell you that it wasn't
10. 0:35because 10 years after I had been down
11. 0:38there we found out that the prosecutor
12. 0:42had evidence that suggested otherwise
13. 0:45that I was indeed innocent that the man
14. 0:48that they brought up there to lie on me
15. 0:50had been telling them all along that man
16. 0:52is Innocent but you know what they did
17. 0:55they went and arrested his wife charged
18. 0:57her with capital murder locked her up
19. 0:59for 2 months didn't let her out and told
20. 1:01her to keep going don't say nothing
21. 1:03about the case and then they went to him
22. 1:05and said look if you don't give us the
23. 1:07story against Mr Grace then we're going
24. 1:10to go back and we're going to prosecute
25. 1:11your wife because there's no statute
26. 1:13limitation on capital murder so
27. 1:15according to this man he said he felt
28. 1:17like he was between a rock and a heart
29. 1:18place he it was he knew he lied on Mr
30. 1:20Graves but he's been in jail for 2 and
31. 1:22A2 years and now they talking about they
32. 1:24going to go after my wife if I don't
33. 1:26liow on Mr Grace so I did the lesser of
34. 1:28the two evils I lied on Mr Grace and as
35. 1:32a result my kids lost their father for
36. 1:3418 and 1/2 years they was 7 8 and nine
37. 1:39when this happened to me and every year
38. 1:42they would come down there and I would
39. 1:44see them they would be te they would be
40. 1:4611 they would start getting La facial
41. 1:47hair and then when I got out I was a
42. 1:51grandfather my kids now had kids I
43. 1:54missed all of that man all because
44. 1:57someone decided to overreach someone
45. 2:00decided that they wanted a victory more
46. 2:02than
47. 2:03Justice someone decided that because I
48. 2:06couldn't afford Justice that I get what
49. 2:08I deserved and to them that was the
50. 2:10death penalty for something I did not
51. 2:12even do I am sing coming here today
52. 2:15because I don't want you to think that
53. 2:18I'm asking you guys to be against the
54. 2:20death penalty I really don't care I
55. 2:23don't care what your position is on the
56. 2:24death penalty that's not the narrative
57. 2:27that should be D driving this
58. 2:28conversation does the death penalty
59. 2:31work ask yourself that does it work I'm
60. 2:35exonerated number
61. 2:37138 I was exonerated four years ago
62. 2:40we're already up to exonary 146 in
63. 2:46counting does it
64. 2:49work can you go home at night feeling
65. 2:51comfortable knowing that we have a death
66. 2:54penalty that is executing innocent
67. 2:57people that are convicting innocent
68. 3:00people and yet you're not doing anything
69. 3:02about it do you know how embarrassing it
70. 3:04is for me I travel all over this world I
71. 3:06go I speak all over I just was at Texas
72. 3:08Tech yesterday but I traveled this globe
73. 3:12and people always ask me one thing what
74. 3:14did Texas do when they found out that
75. 3:16you was
76. 3:17innocent I don't know how to respond to
77. 3:19that other than say they gave me some
78. 3:21money because you guys continue to do
79. 3:23business as usual nobody took a pause to
80. 3:26say that man's life is that so important
81. 3:29that we need to find out what happened
82. 3:30to him so it doesn't happen again who
83. 3:33has done that it's been business as
84. 3:35usual here in the state of Texas yet 12
85. 3:38men has walked off your death row I mean
86. 3:41when is enough going to be enough to
87. 3:42what we get serious and say let's find
88. 3:45out what's really going on I mean we can
89. 3:48pause this thing if you don't want to
90. 3:50bother we can pause this thing find out
91. 3:52what's really going on fix those things
92. 3:54so that you don't have another Anthony
93. 3:55Grace but as of right now you're going
94. 3:58to have more and more ethy graes because
95. 4:00we're doing business as usual thank you
96. 4:03sir Mr gra take any question you know I
97. 4:06apologize again profusely not that
98. 4:09anything that we say or do really is
99. 4:10going to make up for for the loss of of
100. 4:13of your time and your children's time
101. 4:16with you and so on um where where was
102. 4:20your conviction what what county buron
103. 4:23county burlon but some ofv Texas which
104. 4:26is burlingon county okay a county I had
105. 4:28never ever been in how long ago was that
106. 4:31that was in 1992 when I was arrested I
107. 4:34had stayed in jail 2 and A2 years
108. 4:36begging for a trial finally after they
109. 4:39convinced this man to allow me they took
110. 4:40me at trial in
111. 4:411994 I was convicted I was sentenced to
112. 4:45death and I stayed down there to
113. 4:472010 even though the man who lied on me
114. 4:51on his journey in 2000 told the whole
115. 4:54world that he lied that Anthony Grace
116. 4:57had nothing to do with this case and
117. 4:59still took 10 more years and two
118. 5:02execution dates before I was able to
119. 5:03come home we got a problem man and I'm
120. 5:08asking you guys fix it for us fix it for
121. 5:12us that's all we ask as citizens of this
122. 5:14state please fix it for us how how were
123. 5:17you able to um or your lawyers how were
124. 5:20you able to get the information evidence
125. 5:22if you will to overturn your conviction
126. 5:25like what what and I don't mean like the
127. 5:27legal process but ultimately what was it
128. 5:29that allowed you to get the evidence yes
129. 5:32sir it was a prosecutor so I went
130. 5:36through 10 prosecutors because when I
131. 5:38came when my case was overturned and I
132. 5:40came back to the
133. 5:42county lo and behold the judge that was
134. 5:44now on my case was the daughter of the
135. 5:46judge that sentenced me the debt and she
136. 5:48pushed for the case to go to trial even
137. 5:50though the fifth circuit had had ruled 3
138. 5:54egregious prosecutorial misconduct
139. 5:57talking about the uh uh the witness that
140. 6:01falsified his testimony she was she had
141. 6:04now granted the prosecutors to use that
142. 6:08evidence that they said was purged so I
143. 6:11stayed there 4 years and three more
144. 6:13months awaiting a trial for a crime I
145. 6:15did not commit because they was refusing
146. 6:17to acknowledge the truth and it was a
147. 6:19prosecutor Miss Kelly seagler out of
148. 6:22Houston Texas who's known for the death
149. 6:25penalty she has put 19 men on Death Row
150. 6:28got my case and as she said to me Mr
151. 6:31Grace I came back to put you on death
152. 6:33row when I started reading your case and
153. 6:35I read through all the boxes I I went
154. 6:38from there absolutely no evidence to oh
155. 6:40my God this man is innocent and she said
156. 6:43but what I did I call each one of my
157. 6:45investigators in one at a time to ask
158. 6:48them about this case and every one of
159. 6:51them told me that man is innocent MH
160. 6:54that man is but the thing is they
161. 6:56already knew this it became political my
162. 7:00life became political they was going to
163. 7:03kill me to say the day to say the truth
164. 7:06they didn't want nobody to know what the
165. 7:07had did because why you might be
166. 7:09thinking about abolishing the death
167. 7:11penalty you knew just how egregious it
168. 7:13was so they hit it from many years until
169. 7:16this prosecutor got on board that's how
170. 7:19I was exonerated it wasn't DNA it wasn't
171. 7:21D and by the way it was a w it was a a
172. 7:25lie that took my freedom and almost
173. 7:28caused my life no cooperating evidence
174. 7:31just one lie that's all they brought and
175. 7:34our lost 18 years what what was the
176. 7:37charge against you capital murder murder
177. 7:39of six people wow four children a
178. 7:43teenage daughter and a grand a
179. 7:46grandmother how how you think I had to
180. 7:49live with that knowing I didn't even do
181. 7:51this but Society sees me this way for 18
182. 7:54and 1/2 years and then I get out and
183. 7:57then everybody continue to do business
184. 7:58as usual I mean my life is
185. 8:01important what happened to me should
186. 8:03concern all of us enough to stop this
187. 8:06and that's why I'm here I'm asking you
188. 8:09on behalf of the citizen of this state
189. 8:12really the death penalty has worn out
190. 8:14his welcome we need to stop it because
191. 8:18whether you believe in it or not as I
192. 8:20say that's between you and your God I'm
193. 8:22not here to judge I am saying it doesn't
194. 8:24work look at the numbers I'm
195. 8:27138 that should be important to us if
196. 8:31what I know that if 138 people would
197. 8:34have been ex executed that we want
198. 8:36Sinister death we know for a fact today
199. 8:39we would have murdered 138 innocent
200. 8:43people doesn't that concern
201. 8:46anyone so as I say again thank you
202. 8:49chairman uh on behalf of this Sate
203. 8:52please please take this in consideration
204. 8:55thank you
205. 8:56Mr representative Shaheen thank you Mr
206. 8:59chairman Mr Grace thank you for being
207. 9:02here your testimony is very powerful and
208. 9:04it's helpful for
209. 9:06us the um exoneration numbers you said
210. 9:09you're 138 and but then I think you
211. 9:12threw out a number number another number
212. 9:14is 146 what we're up to now Nationwide
213. 9:17yes sir okay and um exonerated off the
214. 9:21death penalty off the death penalty and
215. 9:24do you have a Texas number 12 I think
216. 9:27I'm 13 yeah so you're the
217. 9:3113th um from Individual that was on
218. 9:36death row in the state of Texas found
219. 9:39innocent yes
220. 9:41sir yes
221. 9:42sir and I do know that we killed several
222. 9:47that were innocent I know that for a
223. 9:49fact whether you want to believe it or
224. 9:51not I was there I was there and we
225. 9:54killing innocent people not a lot but
226. 9:57one is too many that's right
227. 9:59representative leech yeah Mr Graves
228. 10:01thanks for being here I know you and I
229. 10:03spent some time together in the past and
230. 10:04um appreciate you being here again to
231. 10:06testify and just taking up the banner
232. 10:08for um the cause of wrongful convictions
233. 10:12and uh tomorrow on the floor of the
234. 10:14Texas house is house is going to be
235. 10:15House Bill 48 um by um Madame chair
236. 10:19McLendon which I'm proud to join author
237. 10:21along with chairman Herrero and and all
238. 10:23this bill does as you know is is creates
239. 10:25a commission to look into the causes of
240. 10:28of wrongful convictions and to make
241. 10:30recommendations so that these um that
242. 10:33these problems can be fixed going
243. 10:35forward you're ex exactly right one um
244. 10:38innocent person convicted or in my
245. 10:40opinion even locked up for a crime that
246. 10:43they've uh not committed is one too many
247. 10:47and uh you know we we conservatives I'm
248. 10:50a I'm pretty conservative guy and I'm
249. 10:52I'm very pro-life I'm pro-life like I I
250. 10:54like to say from the womb to the tomb
251. 10:56and um I think one of our most most
252. 10:59basic duties as government is to protect
253. 11:01innocent life and this is a perfect
254. 11:02example of how we can do that how we
255. 11:04should do that um I'm also for limited
256. 11:06government and I think that there's no
257. 11:08more um egregious instance of big out
258. 11:11ofcontrol government than a government
259. 11:13that takes away the rights and the
260. 11:14freedoms of people that have not
261. 11:17committed a crime and uh so I just want
262. 11:19to commend you and encourage and infirm
263. 11:21you for your work on this um it it
264. 11:25baffles me literally it baffles me and
265. 11:27it angers me how some members of this
266. 11:30legislature some whom I spoke with uh
267. 11:33today and who I assume we'll hear from
268. 11:34tomorrow how they can be against a
269. 11:37simple commission established by this
270. 11:40legislature to uh to lift up the rug and
271. 11:44to put it in the corner and to to find
272. 11:46why this is happening and to ensure that
273. 11:48it doesn't happen again you never lost a
274. 11:50loved one um yeah that's what I you're
275. 11:52exactly right that's what I told one
276. 11:54member I talked with today uh I said go
277. 11:56you need to go meet uh the family of
278. 11:58Timothy Cole and the graves family and
279. 12:01Christopher Scott and Michael Morton and
280. 12:03all these people who I've gotten to
281. 12:04spend a lot of time with and I've heard
282. 12:06their stories and uh every Texan needs
283. 12:09to hear these stories and what the work
284. 12:12you're doing um on this issue we may we
285. 12:15may disagree on whether we should have
286. 12:17the death penalty or not uh but I can uh
287. 12:21dang well assure you that we can agree
288. 12:23that any person that's wrongfully
289. 12:25convicted and put on death row um that
290. 12:27that's one person too many and we have
291. 12:29an obligation a legal and a moral I
292. 12:32believe a moral obligation to fix it
293. 12:34going forward and so I look forward to a
294. 12:36good debate on the house floor tomorrow
295. 12:37I can't even believe we're having a
296. 12:38debate on it um representative Dutton
297. 12:41and representative farar and
298. 12:42representative Simpson and whoever are
299. 12:44going to help us on the house floor
300. 12:45tomorrow try to get this bill passed and
301. 12:47um I just want to encourage and affirm
302. 12:49you for the work you're doing on this
303. 12:51well thank you sir I know it's very
304. 12:53important thank you and I failed to to
305. 12:56do this earlier but uh representative
306. 12:58leech has been with the committee uh U
307. 13:03and I don't mean this is more of a
308. 13:04procedural thing Mr Graves so let me let
309. 13:07me uh respectfully um respect your time
310. 13:11so do we have any questions or comments
311. 13:13members thank you Mr Graves thank you
312. 13:16sir
313. 13:23and