Her column in today's Houston Chronicle is, "Maybe judge is just dad's girl." It's must-read, shing a light on small town connections. Here are extended excerpt:
Maybe it has nothing to do with the judge being a Republican. Maybe it has nothing to do with the political climate at all.
Maybe there's another reason the prosecutor in Anthony Graves' case felt he couldn't get the judge to sign an order ensuring Graves be compensated for the 18 years he spent behind bars for a crime he didn't commit.
Maybe it's because the judge, Reva Towslee-Corbett, is her father's daughter.
Graves, whose capital murder conviction was overturned by a federal appeals court in 2006, recently was denied compensation for his wrongful conviction by the state comptroller's office. Comptroller Susan Combs denied the claim because the judge's order didn't contain the magic words "actual innocence," which she claims the statute requires.
Whether the comptroller is justified in her claim or just trying not to open a Pandora's Box is another column.
But it's been a mystery to many following the case as to why Bill Parnham, the current district attorney for Burleson and Washington counties who has steadfastly supported the case for Graves' innocence, didn't try to get the judge to amend her order with the magic words.
A fact left out of most news coverage on the Graves' case is that the judge, Towslee-Corbett, is the daughter of the judge who heard the original trial that led to Graves' conviction.
Not only that. There also had always been rumors that that the elder judge, Harold Towslee, was once law partners with Charles Sebesta, the reckless prosecutor accused of botching the case with false testimony and manufactured evidence.
The elder Towslee confirmed to me over the phone Wednesday that he and Sebesta practiced law together "a long time ago, maybe the early 1970s."
I asked if his relationship with Sebesta at all influenced his decisions during the trial.
"I'm not going to talk about that, ma'am," the judge said. "You'll have to write your story from some other sources."
And:
Towslee-Corbett didn't return my call for comment, and a spokeswoman said it's been her policy not to talk to reporters.
In a small town, certain connections are expected, but Graves' counsel considered Towslee-Corbett's history with the original judge, as well as the prosecutor, a serious conflict.
As one of Graves' attorneys, Jeff Blackburn, put it: "She grew up practically getting bounced on the knee of Charles Sebesta."
The judge's bias was evident in other decisions. Before she eventually allowed the charges against Graves to be dropped, she was going to allow tainted testimony to be admitted in the new trial. And the day before Graves was to be released from jail after the federal court had tossed out his case, Towslee-Corbett inexplicably set his bond at $1 million to keep him behind bars longer.
So, perhaps all this explains why Parnham may not have felt comfortable asking the judge to amend her order to help Graves get compensation.
Perhaps the DA knew what her answer would be.
And if that's the case, if there's a judge whose rationale is found to be irrational, or who is basing decisions on emotions and personal relationships, we shouldn't let those factors prevent someone like Graves from getting just compensation.
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