A man who spent almost 10 years on Death Row before his capital murder conviction was overturned died Saturday in a one-vehicle rollover crash in Cherokee County in East Texas.
Michael Roy Toney died one month after his release from jail after the state’s decision not to retry him in the 1985 bombing deaths of three people in a Lake Worth trailer.
A spokeswoman for O’Melveny & Myers, the California law firm that handled Toney’s successful appeal, said Sunday night in a written statement that lawyers are saddened by his death.
"Our thoughts are with his family and many friends who supported him in his fight for justice," the statement said.
The accident occurred at 11:05 a.m. as Toney, 43, drove south on Farm Road 347 in a 2000 Ford F-250 pickup, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety. The truck veered off of the east side of the road and rolled.
And:
On Death Row, Toney relentlessly protested his 1999 conviction for the bombing, one of Tarrant County’s most notorious crimes. On Thanksgiving 1985, Angela Blount, 15; her father, Joe Blount, 44; and her cousin Michael Columbus, 18, died when a bomb in a briefcase exploded.
And:
The case went unsolved for 14 years until a Parker County jail inmate told authorities that Toney confessed while serving time there on unrelated charges. The prisoner soon recanted, saying he made up the story to win early release.
No physical evidence connected Toney to the bombing. He was convicted largely on the testimony of his ex-wife and former best friend, who said they saw him plant the bomb.
Another prisoner, who also later recanted, testified that Toney told him that he was paid $5,000 to plant the bomb but that he left it outside the wrong trailer.
Later, Toney’s defense team uncovered 14 documents that Tarrant County prosecutors withheld from his defense during the trial, including records suggesting that investigators may have crafted witnesses’ accounts.
His attorneys have called Toney’s conviction one of the most "egregious cases" they have seen.
In December, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals overturned Toney’s conviction, saying his trial was unconstitutional because Tarrant County prosecutors improperly withheld evidence.
The Tarrant County district attorney’s office recused itself from the case. In September, the Texas attorney general dropped the charges against Toney but retained the option to retry the case after further evaluation of the evidence.
Toney was released from jail Sept. 2.
Earlier coverage begins with this post.
Because the charges had already been dropped and there will be no new trial, I believe that Michael Toney's case meets the criteria for being exonerated, as set out by the Death Penalty Information Center.
It's a crying shame that Michael Toney died in a tragic accident because this means that the real “Lake Worth Bomber” is still loose and laughing up his sleeve at the corrupt Tarrant County District Attorney's Office (at the behest of their ATF handlers) that sent the wrong man to Death Row. Michael Toney was tried in a kangaroo court and convicted solely on the basis of coerced perjured testimony from his vengeful ex-wife and alcoholic business partner. The disgraced former Tarrant County Prosecutor Mike Parrish withheld 14 file boxes full of exculpatory evidence that would have categorically proven Mr. Toney's innocence. I hate to rain on Susan Blount's parade but justice has not been done and the person or persons unknown that murdered her family members is still out there somewhere.
Posted by: mrbilldavis | Friday, October 16, 2009 at 11:48 AM