Comments (0) Best Act of Kindness - 2011
The Innocence Project of Texas/University of St. Thomas Journalism Students
"Kindness" might be too frivolous a word to describe the heroic undoing of a terrible injustice. Anthony Graves spent 18 years on death row for the horrific slaughter of an entire family, his fate sealed in part by the word of another convicted killer who later recanted. In 2002, after he had already served eight years in prison, University of St. Thomas journalism students, under the direction of instructor Nicole Casarez, took a closer look into the case. What resulted was a Pandora's box of prosecutorial misconduct indicating that the Burleson County District Attorney's Office didn't care whether Graves was actually guilty. In 2006, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned Graves's conviction and ordered a new trial. But a special prosecutor assigned to the case determined there was not a shred of evidence Graves committed the murders. He's now a free man, thanks in part to a bunch of dedicated students. Makes us kind of ashamed to think of how we spent our undergrad years.
