Moonlighting Midland Prosecutor Means Freedom for Samuel Sanchez

Samuel Junior Sanchez had served around years of a -year sentence for a violent road-rage episode and had seemingly exhausted all appeals when his sister contacted a group of Abilene attorneys in about new information she hoped might eventually give her brother another chance at life As an angry young man Sanchez had chased down and shot at a car whose driver honked at him resulting in the injury and permanent paralysis of a voyager and Sanchez s indictment for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in But Sanchez was now in his s and he d radically changed in prison Though he never expected to live long enough to win release he d been keeping journals and dedicating himself for a decade to daily bible inquiry prayer and counseling younger men to avoid prison gangs and violent behavior Sanchez was among about criminal defendants who d received notice that they d been affected by a nationally publicized misconduct controversy described blandly by the Midland County District Attorney s office in a form letter as an ethical situation During Sanchez s trial and during his initial unsuccessful appeal a Midland County assistant district attorney named Ralph Petty simultaneously worked as a paid law clerk for the judges overseeing his and other cases while concealing that double role from defense attorneys Samuel Sanchez center with attorneys Jacob Blizzard and Sarah Durham Courtesy Blizzard Zimmerman In the moonlighting Midland prosecutor s shocking misconduct made national news because of his participation in the circumstance of a death row inmate named Clinton Young During Young s appeal Laura Nodolf then Midland County s elected district attorney unearthed evidence that Petty by then a retired assistant district attorney had clerked after hours for years Nodolf disclosed this to Young s attorneys and investigative reporter Jessica Priest broke the story for USA In contemporary times As a consequence Young s conviction and death sentence were reversed in September Young spent a peaceful though brief period out on bail before being retried and resentenced to life On June Sanchez left the courtroom as a free man following a plea deal that was negotiated after the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals CCA reversed both his aggravated assault conviction and sentence because of Petty s misconduct Sanchez court conquest came due to the help of relatives who scraped up funds for his representation by Blizzard Zimmerman an Abilene criminal defense firm which spent nearly four years pursuing his appeal and negotiating his release Surrounded by about family members and friends Sanchez stood speechless in court when the judge approved a new conviction and sentence for time served meaning he could go home He just cried Jacob Blizzard one of Sanchez criminal defense attorneys advised the Texas Observer He was just overwhelmed with emotion So far at least four men Young Sanchez and two others have had their felony convictions and sentences tossed by the conservative CCA based on evidence that Petty s misconduct violated their rights to a fair trial and an unbiased judge court records show Sanchez appears to be the first freed on a plea deal I think that what s so egregious is how systematic it was Blizzard declared Petty did it over and over again for pretty much all of the judges but at the same time I think kept it secret In April Petty was forced to resign from the Texas Bar after the state Supreme Court ascertained his misconduct was conclusively established Still he submitted an affidavit in opposing relief for Sanchez Multiple more Midland criminal defendants remain particular imprisoned who were affected by Petty s long-term misbehavior and dozens and dozens of cases remain to be addressed Midland District Attorney Glenn Harwood informed the Observer In an opinion in another scenario CCA Judge Bert Richardson echoed a Fifth Circuit court judge s description of the situation as utterly bonkers Richardson continued Our adversarial system of law before an impartial judge malfunctioned The barrier to prevent ex parte communications between the prosecutor and the neutral judge vanished unknown to the defense This situation leaves lasting stains on a system of justice that will take years to restore Petty had played a dual role as prosecutor and judicial clerk in Midland County from about until his retirement in records show often performing both duties on the same cases and even drafting judicial orders in response to motions he d filed as a prosecutor Though Nodolf revealed she didn t learn of his clerking for judges until August when she disclosed it court records show two former elected district attorneys concealed his moonlighting and a large number of local judges participated It s unclear whether other players in Midland besides Petty will face any consequences for their roles in his misconduct After being hired by Sanchez relatives in Blizzard and his associates spent nearly two years digging into Petty s part in Sanchez conviction and -year sentence In all cases tainted by Petty s moonlighting the burden remains on the defendants to prove that Petty s tenure as a judicial clerk overlapped with his participation in their cases as a prosecutor and also caused a violation of their constitutional rights Attorneys dug through old billings and court files and identified what they considered clear evidence that Sanchez s rights had been violated Their appeal calculated that Petty had made at least moonlighting as a law clerk while earning a full-time salary from the county as assistant DA Petty played his double role during Sanchez trial and in Petty was paid by the trial court to dispense with Sanchez first habeas application while he also opposed the application as a prosecutor per the appellate record Sanchez s Abilene attorneys also detected court-issued documents resembling Petty s writing style bearing the extraordinary fonts and asterisks he favored coinciding with Petty s arguments to the judge to deny Sanchez s appeal Petty had clearly been in the decision-maker s secret ear to help them make decisions about the event Blizzard recounted the Observer Clinton Young in a prison visitation booth earlier this year Michelle Pitcher Still Blizzard s firm s initial efforts to challenge Sanchez conviction ended with an unpublished CCA ruling in one year prior to the court s ultimate reversal that Sanchez s constitutional rights had not been violated Meanwhile unbeknownst to them lawyers in other parts of Texas were filing other appeals that challenged the prosecutor s dual role in their clients cases One appeal that made its way to the CCA sought relief for Michael David Lewis who d been sentenced to life without parole for capital murder Another was separately filed for Mohsin Mazhar Syed who d been convicted of sexual assault Both cases overlapped with Petty s moonlighting years In Ex Parte Lewis handed down in May the CCA strongly condemned Petty and the judges who employed him The undisputed facts establish that the trial court allowed his paid judicial law clerk to represent one of the parties appearing before him in a contested legal matter This undisclosed employment relationship between the trial judge and the prosecutor appearing before him tainted Applicant s trial the court ruled Lewis was resentenced to years in prison Syed and Sanchez subsequently won reversal of their convictions and sentences under the Lewis decision In both cases the CCA issued new opinions reversing their prior denials Nodolf had recused her office from handling any appeals based on Petty s misconduct after discovering it in she didn t seek re-election in Harwood a former state and federal prosecutor who took office on January has inherited the aftermath The whole Ralph Petty thing is just a big old mess and we re doing our best he described the Observer In a few cases it takes research to determine whether Petty was involved What module Harwood takes in each depends in part on the details of Petty s actions A few we can t retry Specific we can come to an agreed resolution that s not necessarily satisfactory Harwood disclosed And there s the cases where we can retry like Clinton Young s and that s what we re going to do The post Moonlighting Midland Prosecutor Means Freedom for Samuel Sanchez appeared first on The Texas Observer