Former Death Row Inmate, To Speak At Texas State

In 2015, the former district attorney who convicted Graves was disbarred and stripped of his law license by the State Bar of Texas for suppressing evidence and using false testimony in the case. 

SAN MARCOS – Anthony Graves, who spent more than 12 years on death row before being exonerated, will speak at Texas State University October 10 as part of the Common Experience.

The event will be 7 p.m. in the Alkek Teaching Theater. It is free and open to the public.

Graves’ experience ties directly into the Common Experience theme for 2017-2018, “The Search for Justice: Our Response to Crime in the 21st Century,” and this year’s Common Reading book, Just Mercy, by Equal Justice Initiative founder Bryan Stevenson.

Graves, also known as Death Row Exoneree 138, was convicted of capital murder in 1992 and sentenced to death. After 12 years on Texas’ Death Row, his sentence was overturned in 2006 through the work of the Innocence Network, although he wouldn’t be released until 2010.

A documentary on his case, “Grave Injustice,” won an Emmy Award in 2012. In 2015, the former district attorney who convicted Graves was disbarred and stripped of his law license by the State Bar of Texas for suppressing evidence and using false testimony in the case. 

Since his release, Graves has spoken at the American Bar Association Death Penalty Representation Project’s 25th anniversary with retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, and testified before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Hearing on Solitary Confinement.

Graves is a prominent activist with the American Civil Liberties Union. In 2013 he established the Nicole Casarez scholarship at the University of Texas Law School in honor of his attorney, and has founded the Anthony Graves Foundation to benefit children left behind by the criminal justice system.