NATION IN BRIEF : TEXAS : Black Gets New Trial in White Girl’s Death
A Texas appeals court granted a new trial to a black high school janitor who had been sentenced to death for the 1980 rape-slaying of a 16-year-old white girl in Montgomery County. The court said the prosecution of Clarence Brandley, 38, had been marked by “blatant unfairness.” It pointed out that a state witness had allegedly been threatened by a Texas Ranger and that the state suppressed information that could have implicated someone else. Previous testimony indicated that the district attorney and the trial judge met secretly on strategy to convict Brandley, who was the school’s only black janitor.
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