Readers
may remember that I’ve followed the Hannah Overton case for some time. Her capital murder conviction was
rightly overturned in September.
But her release did not come until yesterday’s bond hearing.
The
three month delay in her release is hard to excuse. But part of the delay was her defense team’s wise and
successful effort to get Judge Jose Longoria recused. He presided over the 2007 trial and has demonstrated he
cannot be trusted to be a fair judge of this case.
One
result of said recusal is the success of yesterday’s bond hearing. Bond was set at a reasonable $50,000
with no onerous conditions. So,
finally, Hannah Overton is home with her family after seven long years.
Nueces
County DA Mark Skurka has said he intends to retry Overton for capital murder. But a development during the bond
hearing would make much a foolish task even more difficult:
Arguably the most dramatic
moment of the hearing came when Hannah’s attorneys revealed that one of the
state’s star witnesses at trial, Dr. Alexandre Rotta—who had treated Andrew on
the night he was brought to the hospital in 2006 in a coma—had recently
contacted Hannah’s defense team. Dr. Rotta told Hannah’s attorneys in an email
that seven years after Hannah’s trial, her conviction still kept him up at
night. This complicates matters for Nueces County District Attorney Mark
Skurka, who has vowed to retry Hannah on capital murder charges. The fact that
key prosecution witnesses such as Dr. Rotta— along
with Dr. Edgar Cortes , another physician who examined Andrew on the night
he was admitted to the hospital—now question Hannah’s conviction casts doubt on
whether Skurka can win his case . . . .
Skurka
would be wiser to clean up his office. Yet another indication of the
corruption of the Nueces County DA’s office has come out. Eric Hillman is suing said office. The former prosecutor claims he was
fired for following the law:
Eric Hillman prosecuted
drunk driving cases, but, when he uncovered a witness who had the potential to
help someone he was prosecuting, he claims his bosses told him not to share
that information with the other side.
He did and the lawsuit he filed Monday
claims it cost him his job.
"It is unlawful to
fire or terminate an employee because they refuse to commit a criminal act and
that's exactly what happened here," said Hillman's attorney, Amie Pratt
with the Gale Law Group.
Prosecutors
are required by law to share any evidence that may help the defense. This legal requirement was also alleged
to have been violated in the 2007 Hannah Overton trial.
Was
that violation inadvertent and isolated?
I think not. And I am not alone.
[Hillman’s] attorneys say this
case could point to bigger problems in the pursuit of justice in Nueces County.
"Nueces County seems
to be in favor of withholding evidence from defense counsel which is a huge
problem," Pratt said.
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