Anthony Graves

Anthony Graves was sentenced to death after an admitted mass murderer named him as an accomplice.

The mass murder

In the early morning hours of August 18 1992, two women and four children were shot, stabbed and burned to death. The first person killed, Bobbie Joyce Davis, was the mother of suspect Robert Earl Carter's ex-girlfriend Lisa Davis. Carter's four year old son, Jason, Davis's 16 year old sister Nicole, Davis's 9-year-old daughter D'Nitra, and two of Davis's nieces, Brittany, 6, and Lea'Erin, 5, were also killed.

In setting fire to the house, Carter managed to severely burn himself. Four days later, he attended the victims' funeral. At the services, police noticed his burns and bandages and took him in for questioning. He was soon charged with the murders. There was evidence on the victims of bludgeoning as well as knife and gunshot wounds, so the police thought the use of multiple weapons implied there was more than one killer.

Implication of Graves

Police pressured Carter to name his accomplice and promised not to implicate his wife in the crime if he would name the accomplice. In response, Carter eventually named his wife's cousin, Anthony Graves. Graves had briefly met Carter, but did not know any of the victims. At Graves' grand jury hearing, Carter told the jury that he had committed the murders alone and that Graves was not involved. Yolanda Mathis, Graves' 22 year old girlfriend, testified that she had been with Graves at his mother's house the entire night of the murders along with Graves' brother, Arthur, 22, and his sister, Dietrich, 24. Neither a murder weapon nor Graves' fingerprints were found. In fact, the only physical evidence was a switchblade knife that Graves' former boss said was identical to one he had given to Graves as a gift. While the medical examiner testified that the knife wounds on the victims were consistent with that knife or a knife with a similar blade, Graves' medical expert countered that a wide range of knives with similar dimensions to the switchblade were also consistent with the victims' wounds.cite court |litigants=Graves v. Dretke |vol=442 |reporter=F.3d |opinion=334 |pinpoint= 340 |court=Fifth Cir. |year=2006]

Despite this, District Attorney Charles Sebesta persuaded the grand jury to indict Graves for capital murder. Following the grand jury hearing, the DA arrested Carter's wife. She was released two months later. Carter testified against Graves at Graves' trial. Graves was convicted of the murders and sentenced to death.

Carter was executed by lethal injection on May 31, 2000.cite news | url = http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2000/05/30/eveningnews/main200710.shtml | title= Innocent Man On Death Row? | publisher = CBS News | date = 2000-05-30 | accessdate = 2008-04-28 ] However, for years leading up to his death, Carter had said that he had lied and that Graves was innocent of the killings. From the Texas death chamber, Carter said, "Anthony Graves had nothing to do with it," and that he had lied in court.

The second piece of key evidence were allegations from jailhouse informants and employees.cite book | page = 125-126 | title = Executed on a Technicality: Lethal Injustice on America's Death Row | author = Dow, David | year = 2006 | publisher = Beacon Press | isbn = 0807044199 ] According to John L. Bullard, an inmate in the cell adjacent to Graves, Carter told Graves that he had not told the police everything and then communicated by hand signals. However, Bullard later swore in an affidavit that he had been given a sentence reduction by Sebesta, that he was taking psychotropic medication at the time, and that he thought he was actually Graves, who he thought was innocent.

In March 2006, the federal United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit overturned Graves’ conviction.cite news | url = http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Issue/story?oid=oid%3A505131 | title = Anthony Graves Update: Defense team shot down again | first = Jordan | last = Smith | publisher = Austin Chronicle | date = 2007-07-20 | accessdate = 2008-04-28 ] The court, in part, found that on the night before Carter testified against Graves, Carter told prosecutors he had acted alone and that Graves was innocent. Prosecutors failed to provide that information to Graves' defense attorney and instead threatened to prosecute Carter's wife as a party to the murders.

In July 2007, District Judge Reva Towslee-Corbett denied a motion by Graves' defense team, ruling that the prosecution could use the recanted, and likely perjured, testimony of the now-dead Carter.

Graves' retrial is pending.

References

*A [http://www.pbs.org/now/thisweek/index_010606.html NOW on PBS broadcast interview] with Graves, as part of a look an investigation into the death penalty