In 1992, Allen Andre Causey was wrongfully convicted and sentenced to 50 years in prison for the murder of Anita Byington. The courts ultimately rectified this by throwing out his conviction, and the state is providing restitution for the decades Causey spent behind bars. A relative of the victim has objected to this outcome. But it is not justice for the wrong man to pay for a crime.
I have worked on wrongful-conviction cases for decades, including as head of the Innocence Project of Texas, which represented Causey. I have seen firsthand how these failures occur.
The case against Causey was based on a false written statement that law enforcement scripted and convinced him to sign. To secure this wrongful conviction, prosecutors sponsored the perjured testimony of Kevin Harris, the man last seen with Byington alive. Harris was the state’s first witness at Causey’s trial, yet it now appears that “newly discovered evidence clearly inculpates” Harris in Byington’s murder, a judge ruled last year. On top of that, the original trial prosecutors ignored a court order and withheld exculpatory evidence…