I believe I said something to the effect of:
Ogg leaving the door open to the idea of re-prosecuting Brown is shocking to me. There's no chance in hell that Ogg doesn't know the facts of the case. She may not have the time to delve into it as deeply as she feels necessary, but I guarantee you that she has more than a passing familiarity with it. I have no doubt that she has formed an opinion on what needs to be done.Houston Chronicle reporter Keri Blakinger just published this bombshell of an article, which details that the notorious phone call that is the heart of Brown's alibi may actually not be quite as exculpatory as Brown's legal team would like the general public to believe.
To recap (extremely) briefly, Brown claimed he couldn't have committed the Capital Murder that he was sent to Death Row for because he was at his girlfriend Ericka Dockery's home at the time. The phone records (withheld by Dan Rizzo, apparently) in question showed a landline phone call from Dockery's home to her place of work. Dockery claimed that this phone call was Brown calling her from her home. It was this piece of evidence that got Brown off of Death Row.
That same piece of evidence now may become the thing that puts him back there.
From Blakinger's article:
But now, the county is alleging the phone call doesn't prove Brown's innocence because it was actually a three-way call, showing he was at the scene of the slaying. The shifting interpretation of the old records stems from a new expert analysis that Brown's attorneys have already begun calling into question.Hmm. As I mentioned before, Brown's actual innocence may not be quite the well-settled issue his legal team would like the public to believe.
Brown's civil attorney, Cate Edwards had this to say:
"The county's '3-way call' theory is simply incorrect," [Edwards] said, "and is inconsistent with Ms. Ogg's recent actions referring Mr. Rizzo to the Texas State Bar and appointing of independent counsel to determine whether Mr. Brown is actually innocent."This statement is the legal equivalent of Donald Trump yelling "Wrong!" every time he doesn't like what he's hearing. In actuality, Ogg's recent actions are perfectly consistent with this information. Whether the calls were three-way or not, they still should have been turned over to the defense. Ogg referring Rizzo to the Bar is still the right move on that level. Her referral of the case to John Raley is also perfectly consistent with having an outside set of eyes look at this situation from a neutral standpoint.
The bottom line is that Alfred Brown got his freedom from Death Row, but ultimately decided that wasn't enough for him. He wanted compensation. His highly publicized attempt to get that compensation is what brought this information to light.
In retrospect, he probably should have just left the money and enjoyed his freedom.
