Filing this appeal is a major step forward in the fight to overturn his wrongful conviction, bring the truth to light and ensure justice is finally done. Clinton has spent almost 25 years fighting to clear his name. This marks an important milestone in that journey. Below are the key issues raised in the appeal:
- Issue One: Clinton’s trial attorneys admitted guilt to lesser offenses against Clinton’s explicit instructions, creating structural error and violating his right to effective counsel.
- Issue Two & Three: Clinton was denied his constitutional rights under both the U.S. and Texas Constitutions when counsel refused to let him testify in his own defense.
- Issue Four: The defense failed to object to damaging hearsay testimony from a police investigator about what David Page allegedly said.
- Issue Five: The cumulative effect of these serious errors requires reversal.
- Issue Six: The trial court allowed testimony from Clinton’s tainted 2003 trial—tainted because of prosecutorial and judicial misconduct—to be read into the record, even though the State’s own misconduct caused the witnesses to be unavailable.
- Issue Seven: The trial court wrongly denied Clinton’s motions to bar retrial based on that same prosecutorial misconduct.
- Issue Eight: The evidence is legally insufficient to support a conviction for Capital Murder.
