Clarence Brandley Second Trial Of Clarence Brandley

Background

Clarence Brandley was an African American wrongly convicted man, sent to jail, and was nearly executed twice on two separate occasions. Clarence Brandley was born September 24, 1951 to his mother Minnie Ols, Brandley always knew he would have a hard life especially being a black living in a racist town like Conroe Texas. He says he could remember as a child his grandfather “Putt” Bradley had been shot dead by a white bully in front of everal individuals that were doing their Saturday shopping, killed for his color and there was no chance of his murder ever getting justice (Davies, 1991). Clarence was from Conroe Texas which is East Texas where the whites used to hang warning signs “Nigger, don’t let the sun set on you here meaning

Also, one of janitors John Sessun was no longer cooperating and willing to back the other janitors statement. They also had a new witness by the name of Mr. Taylor who had worked shortly as a janitor and says he overheard Mr. Brandley make a comment after a group of white girls saying “If I got one of them alone, anit no tellin’ what I might do”. That all-white jury found Clarence Brandley guilty of capital murder and sentenced him to the death penalty (Davies 1991). Mr. Bradley's first scheduled execution was on January 16,1985, but a stay was granted so that the court could hear arguments against the lost evidence (Belkins, 1989). After that hearing, the judge denied a request for a new trial and scheduled the execution for March 26,1987. On March 20th, another stay was granted in light of new evidence produced videotapes for two of the janitors giving new evidence (Belkin.

Brandley attorneys argued that it was not relevant, immaterial and prejudice but the court allowed it. On appeal, the court held that the helpful value of the testimony in explaining an otherwise seemingly random event outweighed its potential prejudicial effect. The court, therefore, overruled this ground of error (Brandley v Texas, 1985).

The firth ground, Brandley’s attorneys argued the courts didn’t bring in the evidence that police found in janitor Peace’s car. The police officers found a gun, a wooden club, two knives, and a fake narcotics badge in his car. Brandley’s attorney believed that janitor Peace is the one that committed the crime, therefore, they should allow the evidence. The appeals court, held that the testimony has been sufficient to establish what was in the car and they refused the ground of appeal (Brandley v Texas,