That's the title of a Dallas Morning News editorial looking at issues raised by Anthony Graves' exoneration last year. It appeared in the Saturday edition.
It’s natural to be defensive when one’s professional stature and integrity are on the line. A humiliating reversal sometimes brings out the worst in people, as appears to be the case for Charles Sebesta, the former Burleson County district attorney who prosecuted the highly flawed murder case of Anthony Graves.
Sebesta won a conviction that sent Graves to death row as an accomplice to the hideous murders of six in a Somerville house in 1992. Graves spent 18 years in prison, always maintaining his innocence, while Sebesta unceasingly insisted that Graves was guilty and had to die.
Graves today is a free man after receiving exoneration in October. Sebesta, meanwhile, has taken out an ad in the Burleson County Tribune and created a website to restate his claims of Graves’ guilt. His arguments are stunningly incoherent; they betray the desperation of a man who simply cannot bring himself to admit: I was wrong.
And:
Sebesta’s obsession with winning his case evidently clouded his judgment, and still does. His behavior is by no means representative of Texas’ justice system, but the fact that the system allowed such blatant error — nearly costing an innocent man his life — is exactly why Texas needs to reconsider its use of the death penalty.
Death is irreversible. Our capital punishment system has been proved imperfect. Charles Sebesta’s conduct in this case places these facts into high relief.
This state’s criminal justice system is too flawed to justify the use of the death penalty.
Related posts are in the editorial index; earlier coverage of Anthony Graves' exoneration, at the link.
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