Moonlighting prosecutor sent Texas man to death row; 17 years later, he could get a new trial

[BlueTex]

Holy crap... Talk about a conflict of interest...

For decades, Ralph Petty spent his days as a prosecutor for the Midland County District Attorney’s Office trying criminal cases before a slate of judges and winning hundreds of convictions in the process.

The chain-smoking assistant DA was known as a legal scholar to his peers in this west Texas community where the wind blows hard and uninterrupted, and oil pump jacks dot the flat countryside.

But in his free time, Petty did something that now casts doubt on hundreds of cases he prosecuted.

For years, he moonlighted as a paid clerk for the same judges before whom he argued his cases on behalf of the state. In some cases, he helped write the judges’ orders on his own cases.

According to attorneys for at least one of those defendants, death row inmate Clinton Young, working as a judicial clerk gave Petty access to confidential information that gave him an unfair advantage as a prosecutor.

Even if he did not use this information, Young’s attorneys said, Petty’s special relationship with the judges shattered the appearance of impartiality, which is one of the keys to the constitutional guarantee of a fair trial.

All told, Petty – who is now 78 and left the DA’s office in June 2019 – performed legal work for at least nine judges involving the convictions of at least 355 defendants whom he prosecuted, according to a USA TODAY analysis of Midland County Auditor’s and Treasurer’s records dating back to 2000. Records before then were not available.

Moonlighting prosecutor sent Texas man to death row; 17 years later, he could get a new trial

A prosecutor moonlighted on the cases of 355 defendants for nine judges. Their sentences range from probation to the death penalty.

www.usatoday.com

 

[ouch]

But even if an attorney were to complain to the bar, which oversees lawyers, odds that a prosecutor would face punishment are slim.

Can there be lawsuits filed against this sham of a prosecutor and the judges involved?

 

[Cardinal]

This is about 87% of the reason for why I’m against the death penalty. The other 13% is because of the inherent bias so many people have that if somebody is arrested, it must mean he’s guilty.

 

[WillyPete]

Pretty slim thread to cling to. If it was wrong, it's on the judge that permitted it. They don't even claim actual wrongdoing, just potential, and you guys have your torches out.

Not really clear how this changes the facts of the case where he was convicted, but try him again on a technicality if you must.

Let's just not set him loose until we sort this all out.

 

[Cardinal]

Pretty slim thread to cling to. If it was wrong, it's on the judge that permitted it. They don't even claim actual wrongdoing, just potential, and you guys have your torches out.

Not really clear how this changes the facts of the case where he was convicted, but try him again on a technicality if you must.

Let's just not set him loose until we sort this all out.

If you have to ask why ****ery shouldn’t be a feature of murder trials…especially trials where the death penalty is on the menu…then you’ll never get it.

 

[Moon]

Holy crap... Talk about a conflict of interest...

For decades, Ralph Petty spent his days as a prosecutor for the Midland County District Attorney’s Office trying criminal cases before a slate of judges and winning hundreds of convictions in the process.

The chain-smoking assistant DA was known as a legal scholar to his peers in this west Texas community where the wind blows hard and uninterrupted, and oil pump jacks dot the flat countryside.

But in his free time, Petty did something that now casts doubt on hundreds of cases he prosecuted.

For years, he moonlighted as a paid clerk for the same judges before whom he argued his cases on behalf of the state. In some cases, he helped write the judges’ orders on his own cases.

According to attorneys for at least one of those defendants, death row inmate Clinton Young, working as a judicial clerk gave Petty access to confidential information that gave him an unfair advantage as a prosecutor.

Even if he did not use this information, Young’s attorneys said, Petty’s special relationship with the judges shattered the appearance of impartiality, which is one of the keys to the constitutional guarantee of a fair trial.

All told, Petty – who is now 78 and left the DA’s office in June 2019 – performed legal work for at least nine judges involving the convictions of at least 355 defendants whom he prosecuted, according to a USA TODAY analysis of Midland County Auditor’s and Treasurer’s records dating back to 2000. Records before then were not available.

Moonlighting prosecutor sent Texas man to death row; 17 years later, he could get a new trial

A prosecutor moonlighted on the cases of 355 defendants for nine judges. Their sentences range from probation to the death penalty.

www.usatoday.com

Good lord, how can be acceptable, if not outright illegal?

 

[BlueTex]

Pretty slim thread to cling to. If it was wrong, it's on the judge that permitted it. They don't even claim actual wrongdoing, just potential, and you guys have your torches out.

Not really clear how this changes the facts of the case where he was convicted, but try him again on a technicality if you must.

Let's just not set him loose until we sort this all out.

NINE different judges in one county continued this practice for DECADES until the current DA discovered the practice and blew the whistle...

The moonlighting escaped broad attention until August 2019, two months after Petty’s retirement, when current Midland County District Attorney Laura Nodolf unearthed it while researching other billing matters.

Nodolf’s discovery, which she described recently as “infuriating,” occurred just two weeks before an evidentiary hearing in the ongoing attempt by Young to appeal his 2003 conviction.

 

[WillyPete]

If you have to ask why ****ery shouldn’t be a feature of murder trials…especially trials where the death penalty is on the menu…then you’ll never get it.

If a lawyer moonlighting as a clerk is ****ery, I guess that's fair.

It's not like it was a secret to the judge running the whole show.

If it's a bad look, change it, but I don't see why it has any bearing on our killer.

 

[Cardinal]

If a lawyer moonlighting as a clerk is ****ery, I guess that's fair.

It's not like it was a secret to the judge running the whole show.

If it's a bad look, change it, but I don't see why it has any bearing on our killer.

Then I guess you’re just going to have to imagine yourself in the defendant’s shoes.

 

[WillyPete]

Then I guess you’re just going to have to imagine yourself in the defendant’s shoes.

I always imagine the victims, myself.

Having no reason to think otherwise, here I can imagine that he'll get convicted again in a retrial, and that his lawyer will find something to object to in that trial as well.

Or maybe he's not worth re-trying and they let him loose. I guess that's justice this time. Yay justice!

 

[BlueTex]

If a lawyer moonlighting as a clerk is ****ery, I guess that's fair.

It's not like it was a secret to the judge running the whole show.

If it's a bad look, change it, but I don't see why it has any bearing on our killer.

It's not up to just the judge.. When an appeals court heres these details they will very likely start throwing out cases.. Ethics matter...

 

[Cardinal]

I always imagine the victims, myself.

It’s appropriate that you’re using the plural form, since it’s possible that there may be two victims: the original murder victim and a victim of wrongful conviction.

Having no reason to think otherwise, here I can imagine that he'll get convicted again in a retrial, and that his lawyer will find something to object to in that trial as well.

Or maybe he's not worth re-trying and they let him loose. I guess that's justice this time. Yay justice!

That’s possible. Or it can get thrown out. We don’t know yet.

 

[Mr Person]

But in his free time, Petty did something that now casts doubt on hundreds of cases he prosecuted.

For years, he moonlighted as a paid clerk for the same judges before whom he argued his cases on behalf of the state. In some cases, he helped write the judges’ orders on his own cases.

According to attorneys for at least one of those defendants, death row inmate Clinton Young, working as a judicial clerk gave Petty access to confidential information that gave him an unfair advantage as a prosecutor.

Oh FFS. Seriously?