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Texas Man Wrongly Convicted of Murder Credits TV Show for Getting Justice

Jun 23, 2011  •  Post A Comment

A Texas man who was freed from Death Row last fall after it was proved that he had been wrongly convicted of murder is crediting a TV show with helping to achieve justice in his case.

Anthony Graves, the subject of a “48 Hours Mystery” episode last April titled “Grave Injustice,” is due to receive $1.4 million from the state to compensate him for his incarceration. Due to a technicality in his prison release, the compensation required Texas to pass special legislation, which was approved by the state House and Senate and signed by Gov. Rick Perry.

“Graves was a death row inmate when a group of journalism students at the University of St. Thomas in Houston began looking at his case in 2002, where they worked for four years to uncover the truth: Anthony Graves was an innocent man,” CBS News said in a statement.

The statement adds: “Despite getting his good name back, as the ‘48 Hours Mystery’ broadcast of Graves’ story brought to light, full justice was still not served. Due to two words missing from his prison release papers, the state of Texas refused to compensate him for his wrongful incarceration; a 2009 law that says exonerees can receive $80,000 for every year they were imprisoned. The final piece of the puzzle that would help Graves put his life back together was missing … until now.”

Said Graves: "If it hadn’t been for ‘48 Hours Mystery,’ I don’t think I would be getting my compensation. They laid out my case for the whole world to see and as a result it made Texas do the right thing. I owe it all to 48 Hours, for first taking an interest in my case, seeing the injustice for what it was, and then showing the rest of the world.”

One Comment

  1. I think wrongfull convictions should be in the media. I wish I could find some journalists in Oregon wanting to do one of these cases.

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