The Innocence Files: Alfred Brown spent 10 years on death row for murder as prosecutor withheld key evidence
A check-cashing store in Houston, Texas, was robbed by three men in April 2003, and who shot at a clerk and a police officer who responded to the scene. Both the clerk, Alfredia Jones, a new mother, and the police officer, Charles Clark, who was days away from his retirement, died on the spot. A day after the crime, police arrested 21-year-old Alfred Dewayne Brown, 21-year-old Dashan Glaspie and 23-year-old Elijah Joubert on capital murder charges.
Although Brown was acquainted with Glaspie and Joubert, he vehemently denied his involvement in the crime. Glaspie, however, pled guilty to armed robbery and testified against both Brown and Joubert. He told the police that Brown was the one to shoot the police officer; multiple eyewitnesses, including an employee of a business in the vicinity of the crime scene — testified that they saw Brown on the day of the crime.
Brown continued to maintain that he was sleeping on his girlfriend's couch when the crime occurred. His statement was corroborated by his girlfriend Ericka Dockery, who also stated that the 21-year-old had called her from her home phone at the same time authorities believed he was with Joubert and Glaspie minutes after the crime.
The call records could have been retrieved at the time to prove Brown's alibi, however, his defense attorney was convinced that it was impossible to retrieve landline records in 2003.
However, after a few days, Dockery — Brown's strongest defense — turned on him. She testified in court that Brown had confessed to her that he committed the crime. On October 8, 2005, Brown was convicted by the jury for capital murder, and days later, they voted to sentence him to death.
Nearly six years after his conviction, Brown's attorneys arranged for Anthony Graves, a Texas death row exoneree, to interview Dockery. Graves, who had declined their requests for years, eventually relented. Graves held a meeting with Dockery and an investigator for Brown, where Dockery recanted her trial testimony. She revealed that she had a separate witness trial with the jurors, where they threatened her making references to her losing her job, her children, and going to prison for perjury. Dockery revealed that she had lied because she felt threatened by the prosecutor. This came as a big break in Brown's case.
With more media focus on Brown's case, the homicide detective, who worked on his conviction case, "found records" from the case in his garage in 2013 and alerted Brown's attorneys of it. The records contained a key piece of evidence: a landline telephone log showing that a call had been made from Brown's home to her workplace at the exact time Brown had maintained he had called her.
The records also contained a subpoena from the trial prosecutor to the phone company, showing that the district attorney's office had the phone record which could have absolved Brown of the crime. The DA's officer, however, did not give the document to the defense, amounting to Brady violation. Under the Fifth and Fourteenth amendments, a prosecutor is required to disclose favorable evidence to defendants. A failure to do so results in Brady violation.
After the emergence of the new evidence, a state petition for a writ of habeas corpus was filed, which granted Brown a new trial. On June 9, 2015, the Houston County DA dismissed the charges against him. Brown was released of his death sentence nearly 10 years after conviction, although the Houston police continued to view him as guilty. Brown has not yet been compensated for his wrongful conviction yet.
Netflix's docu-series 'The Innocence Files' — released on April 15 — explores untold personal stories behind cases of wrongful conviction overturned with the help of multiple non-profit organizations, including The Innocence Project.