Houston cop killer's conviction overturned

HOUSTON – The Texas Criminal Court of Appeals Wednesday overturned the conviction of a Houston man sentenced to death in the killing of a Houston Police Department officer.

The court ordered a new trial for Alfred Dewayne Brown because of evidence withheld during his trial in 2005.

Prosecutors said Brown and two other men were robbing a check-cashing store when they shot and killed the store clerk, Alfredia Jones, and then Officer Charles Clark, who responded to the scene.

Brown claimed he was innocent and that he had an alibi that could prove it. He said he was at his girlfriend's house and made a call from a land-line phone. But phone records were never produced during the trial or shared with the defense.

The Harris County District Attorney's Office found the phone records during a post-conviction review of the case last year. They were in the garage of a homicide detective.

The office then turned the evidence over to Brown's defense attorneys, who filed a new appeal on his behalf.

"There's a rule that requires prosecutors to show the defense any evidence that would tend to show innocence, and that was not done in this case," said Sandy Thompson, a professor at the University of Houston's Law Center.

Thompson said District Attorney Devon Anderson could either re-try Brown or drop the charges against him. 

In a statement, Anderson said, "I will now carefully review and evaluate the case to determine the appropriate proceedings."