Two men represented by the Innocence Project of Texas have been declared innocent after spending 15 years behind bars for the 1999 stabbing murder of Dallas pastor Rev. Jesse Borns Jr.
Stanley Mozee and Dennis Allen were declared innocent on Friday and their cases are being dismissed. Remarkably, over the course of the investigation of their convictions, it was found in 2014 that a prosecutor “suppressed exculpatory evidence.” That means they hid evidence that was favorable to the defense — evidence that could have exonerated them.
According to CBS Dallas-Fort Worth, the prosecutor also “failed to correct false or misleading testimony from witnesses.”
Mozee and Allen walked free in 2014 after this misconduct was revealed, but their convictions were reversed until 2018. They were convicted in 2000. Now, in 2019, the cases against them have been dismissed due to “actual innocence.”
It was noted that they will be able to pursue compensation for the time they spent behind bars. The Innocence Project has a whole page dedicated to this.
“There is simply no question that when an innocent person has had his life stripped from him only to endure the horror of prison, justice demands that the individual be compensated for the harm suffered,” it says, in part. “States should adequately and promptly provide justice and restoration to the wrongly convicted through a standard, navigable, and just process.”
Rick Jackson, identified as a former prosecutor who put Mozee and Allen, said as recently as 2016 that he believed the men were guilty. Jackson also believed he was a fall guy.
“They’re grasping at straws,” he said. “They know those two guys are guilty.”
DNA tests on “a trove of physical evidence” from the murder scene reportedly showed no link to the accused.
[Image via WFAA screengrab]
Follow Law&Crime:
