The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has overturned a lower court’s decision that Michael Newberry should face a new trial in a 1997 Cooke County capital murder case.
In a decision announced Wednesday, the court ruled without explanation that Newberry had not met the burden necessary to reverse his conviction. The verdict overturns a visiting judge’s earlier ruling that evidence was concealed at trial and that Newberry deserved another opportunity before a jury.
“Based on our independent review of the entire record, this court finds that Applicant has not met his burden to prove that he is entitled to relief,” the justices concluded. “We deny relief.”
The appeals court did not provide any further reason. One judge, David Newell, disagreed with the ruling.
Mark Lassiter, Newberry’s attorney, severely attacked the ruling.
“We are extremely disappointed with the Court of Criminal Appeals’ decision.” We do not agree and will file a move to reconsider,” Lassiter stated. “Obviously, this is not a unanimous ruling since we have a dissenting judge.
To hold that a man should spend the rest of his life in prison without explanation is wrong, especially when the trial court was obliged to defer to their decision that he deserved a fresh trial.”
Cooke County District Attorney John Warren, who previously backed Newberry’s plea for a new trial, declined to comment.
The verdict means that Newberry, who was sentenced to life in prison, will stay incarcerated.
If the appeals court had agreed with Judge Lee Gabriel’s recommendation, Warren had stated that he intended to dismiss the case entirely. He earlier stated that he suspected former District Attorney Janelle Haverkamp violated the law by suppressing evidence.
WFAA sent Haverkamp an email for comment. She earlier stated that she couldn’t remark according to judicial conduct regulations.
In April, Gabriel released a 43-page decision declaring that Haverkamp concealed important information that could have influenced the jury’s verdict. Gabriel determined that Haverkamp, Cooke County’s only district judge, refused to reveal police and grand jury statements made by Newberry’s accused accomplice.
Gabriel remarked that evidence about the accomplice’s possession of the murder weapon and his “detailed history of crimes including a drive-by shooting” could have presented the defense with “relevant, strong cross-examination material.”
She determined that the prosecution concealed facts that would have allowed Newberry’s attorney to adequately dispute the state’s case.
“The suppressed evidence could have affected the judgment of the jury,” Gabriel wrote in his essay.
Cooke County is still dealing with the fallout from the case.
Administrative Judge David Evans recently granted Warren’s request that Haverkamp be removed from presiding over matters involving his office after accusing him of a political vendetta against her.
Cooke County Sheriff Ray Sappington and Cooke County Judge John Roane have both publicly chastised Warren. In a statement released on Wednesday, Roane blasted Warren again.
“Unfortunately for the citizens of Cooke County, their elected DA sided with a man convicted of capital murder and cost the county thousands of dollars in hiring private counsel to do DA Warren’s job defending this conviction on behalf of Cooke County,” according to Roane.
The Cooke County Commissioners Court recruited outside lawyers and filed a 53-page brief with the appeals court opposing Newberry’s plea for a new trial.
The brief contended that Newberry’s petition was an unlawful attempt to retry the case, and chastised Warren for supporting it and promising to dismiss the charges if granted.
The county said it retained counsel to “advance the public interest in truth and fairness” and urged the appeals court to uphold the jury’s verdict requiring Newberry to “serve the sentence that was justly imposed by a Cooke County jury.”
Rick Hagen, an attorney who also filed a brief wih the trial court urging that Newberry’s conviction stand, criticized Lassiter, saying the defense lawyer was “reckless and cavalier with his version of the facts.”
“I think the Court of Criminal Appeals did the right thing in denying relief,” Mr. Hagen said.
In a statement, Newberry’s family said that they were “truly heartbroken” by the appeals court decision.
“His denial of freedom, despite the many civil and constitutional rights violations he endured, has left us devastated,” according to a statement.
“To say that a former District Attorney withholding egregious exculpatory evidence would not have influenced the jury’s decision is simply mind blowing. Justice should mean fairness and truth, yet in this case, those principles were denied.”
The statement said that his family would continue “to advocate for Michael’s freedom and shine a light on the underbelly of the Cooke County judicial system and how it throws lives away.”
“We will not stop until justice is truly served,” the family’s statement said.
