"Appeals court grants new trial in '85 Lake Worth bombing murders," is Alex Branch's article in today's Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on Wednesday granted Michael Roy Toney the right to a new trial, agreeing that Tarrant County prosecutors improperly withheld evidence during his capital murder trial in the 1985 bombing deaths of three people.
Toney will likely be transferred from Death Row to Tarrant County, where he will await a decision from prosecutors on whether to retry the 23-year-old case.
Toney’s attorneys say that he is not guilty and that no reliable evidence connects him to the bombing.
"We are very happy that relief was granted today," said Jared Tyler, an attorney with the Texas Innocence Network. "We believe it is a big step toward proving Michael’s innocence."
Chuck Mallin, chief of the appellate division of the district attorney’s office said prosecutors will meet with District Attorney Tim Curry and decide whether to retry the case "probably sometime in the near future."
"I am sure that it is our intention right now [to retry it], but we will discuss the decision," Mallin said.
The district attorney’s office acknowledged this year that at least 14 documents that could have been favorable to Toney’s defense were not given to his lawyers during his 1999 trial.
Prosecutors and Toney’s attorneys jointly requested a new trial.
The court ruling Wednesday affirmed an order signed in October by state District Judge Everett Young that Toney should receive a new trial. Young presided over Toney’s first trial.
The Houston Chronicle carries the AP report, "Texas death row inmate's conviction overturned."
The state's highest criminal court upheld a lower court's October ruling that the lead prosecutor withheld evidence during Michael Roy Toney's 1999 trial. The Tarrant County District Attorney's Office had not disputed that assertion.
Chuck Mallin, chief of the office's appellate division, said Wednesday that District Attorney Tim Curry will decide in a few days whether to try Toney again after prosecutors review the case evidence. But Mallin said they still believe Toney committed the crime.
He said Toney would return to jail in Fort Worth and that bond would be set but did not know the amount.
One of Toney's attorneys, Rebecca Bauer Kahan of San Francisco, said it was "a very exciting day."
"We believe justice prevailed today and will continue to prevail," she said Wednesday, adding that she does not believe he should be tried again. "I don't think any credible evidence remains against Mr. Toney."
The CCA file for the Toney case is here. Earlier coverage of the Toney case is here. The responsibility of the state to provide exculpatory evidence to the defense was articulated in the 1963 Supreme Court ruling in Brady v. Maryland. More information is here, via Oyez.
Comments