"New trial set for man in Texas prison 30 years," is the AP report, via the Bryan-College Station Eagle.
A judge on Wednesday set a Sept. 22 retrial for a man kept in a Texas prison for more than three decades since his murder conviction was overturned.
Jerry Hartfield, 58, was convicted in 1977 and sent to death row for the fatal beating of Eunice Lowe at the Bay City bus station where she worked as a ticket agent. His original conviction was overturned and his sentence commuted, but no action on a retrial ever was taken.
And:
His lawyers have been seeking a speedy trial, saying he's suffered enough from mishandling of his case.
Hartfield's conviction was overturned in 1980. After prosecutors unsuccessfully appealed that ruling, then-Gov. Mark White commuted Hartfield's sentence to life in prison in 1983.
Hartfield didn't challenge his continued detention until 2006, when a fellow prisoner pointed out that once his conviction was overturned, there was no sentence to commute. Appeals courts agreed and ordered Hartfield freed or retried.
Earlier coverage of Jerry Harfield's case begins at the link.
Comments