Dallas prosecutor disbarred for withholding evidence that could have cleared men of murder charges

SummerMadness

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Dallas prosecutor disbarred for withholding evidence that could have cleared men of murder charges
When former Dallas County prosecutor Richard E. Jackson put two homeless Black men on trial in 2000 for the murder of a local pastor, he allegedly withheld a heap of evidence that could have cleared them.

Witnesses couldn’t pick the suspects out of a lineup, neither of the men matched descriptions provided to investigators, and prosecutors had brokered secret deals with jailhouse informants for favorable testimony, appeals court papers would later show.

In separate trials, jurors heard none of it. Jackson got his convictions, and Dennis Allen and Stanley Mozee were sentenced to life in prison. Only after an extensive review by the Innocence Project and Jackson’s successors were the men exonerated — 14 years later.

Now, after two decades of legal wrangling, Jackson has been disbarred from practicing law in Texas, in a rare example of severe punishment for misconduct in a wrongful conviction case.