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Dallas County prosecutor who withheld evidence disbarred after two 2 men cleared of murder
Richard “Rick” E. Jackson is just the fourth lawyer in the country to lose a law license after egregious misconduct that led to a wrongful conviction.
Rick Jackson, left, when he was a Dallas County prosecutor. He was disbarred in April after he withheld evidence in the capital murder trials of two men who were exonerated.(file photo)
This story was updated at 1:20 p.m. with comments from Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot.
A former Dallas County prosecutor quietly surrendered his law license last month after the State Bar of Texas said he withheld evidence that led to the wrongful convictions of two men in the slaying of a South Dallas pastor.
In the course of researching the outcome of every death sentence since 1973 – more than 9,600 death sentences nationwide – DPIC identified 11 cases not previously included on the innocence list in which people who had been wrongfully convicted and sentenced to death were later exonerated. Read more about the cases below.
John Thomas Alford
North Carolina Conviction: 1975, Acquitted: 1976
John Thomas Alford was convicted and sentenced to death in 1975. Alford was tried with a codefendant who confessed to the murder. Alford presented evidence and witnesses that he was not at the scene of the crime, but he was not allowed to offer his codefendant’s confession as evidence of his innocence. The North Carolina Supreme Court reversed his conviction and sentence and ordered Alford be retried separately from his codefendant. At retrial, he was acquitted of all charges.