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A woman was violently attacked working at a plumbing company in Houston resulting in her laying in a coma for ten days. She emerged from the coma and picked a former co-worker as the attacker. Although the police removed scrapings from the victim’s finger nails and both the prosecution and defense attorneys requested they be analyzed, the judge refused.

After the former co-worker was convicted he retained a new attorney who discovered valuable evidence had been ignored by the previous attorney including the victims cell phone was stolen and used after the violent attack. The police had also previously identified the person who was using the cell phone and the new attorney decided to pursue how this person obtained the phone and whom this person had called after the attacks.

The new attorney traced the trail of the stolen phone to yet another former co-worker who also had an altercation with the victim. The trial court recommended the false accused man receive a new trial and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals overturned his conviction and granted him a new trial. He was released on bail until the prosecutors could dismiss the charges.

The wrongly convicted man received a pardon and a lump sum of $333,333 and a monthly annuity from the state of $2,475.

To read more about this case and other wrongly convicted people who were later found not-guilty, visit:

https://www.law.umich.edu/special/exoneration/Pages/casedetail.aspx?caseid=2992

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