His Own Fault
In 1976, the state of Texas convicted Jerry Hartfield of murder and sent him to death row; in 1980, its Court of Criminal Appeals threw out the conviction. In 1983, the governor commuted Hartfield’s sentence to life. In 2006, a fellow inmate, apparently finding it odd that Hartfield was serving a life sentence even though he had no valid conviction, helped him file for habeas corpus. Lawyers on both sides are now finally preparing for a new trial. Judge Craig Estlinbaum ruled that keeping Hartfield in prison since 1980 with no valid conviction hadn’t violated his right to a speedy trial: Hartfield didn’t demand a new trial until 2006, and a prosecutor even argued that he couldn’t prove he’d wanted one. Once Hartfield was no longer facing execution, he was no longer provided a lawyer, and a 1977 evaluation showed he had an I.Q. around 60 and couldn’t read. (AC/Houston Chronicle, New York Daily News) ...The question is whether the state’s lawyers can read the words “conviction reversed.”Story Update: Rather than release him, the state subjected Hartfield to a new trial in 2015 ...and was convicted. A state Court of Appeals ruled that no, his right to a speedy trial was not just denied, but spectacularly so, and overturned the indictment, thereby voiding the second trial.
“We are deeply mindful that our conclusion today means that a defendant who may be guilty of murder may go free,†wrote Judge Gina M. Benavides in the ruling, “however, based on the United States Constitution, it is the only possible remedy.†He was released from prison in 2017, after serving 45 years without a legal conviction.
Original Publication Date: 11 May 2014
This story is in True’s book collections, in Volume 20.
This story is in True’s book collections, in Volume 20.
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