Nov 9, 2007 6:52 pm US/Central
Bail Set For Murder Convict After DNA Test Results
DALLAS (CBS 11 News/AP) ―
-
-
Bail has been set for convicted murderer Clay Reed Chabot, after DNA tests refuted the testimony of a key prosecution witness.
CBS 11 News
A judge set bail Friday for a man who spent the past 21 years in prison for murder but is likely to receive a new trial after a DNA test refuted the testimony of a key prosecution witness.
State District Judge Lana Myers set Clay Reed Chabot's bail at $500,000. Last month, she recommended to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals that Chabot's 1986 capital murder conviction be vacated because defense lawyers and the Dallas County District Attorney's Office agree he did not receive a fair trial.
Chabot may soon be a free man, but prosecutors plan to try him for murder again.
Susan Campbell is the sister-in-law of Galua Crosby. "Clay is a convicted murder today. He did murder my sister-in-law," she says. "No court has found him innocent of that crime."
Chabot has served two decades in prison for the 1986 murder of Crosby, a 28-year-old woman from Garland.
Chabot will likely be released from Dallas County Jail next week after authorities set up an electronic monitoring system, said one of his lawyers, Vanessa Potkin. He will be released into the custody of his sister, who is moving from Ohio to comply with the judge's order that he remain in Dallas.
"This is another huge step for final vindication," Potkin said.
Prosecutors say a DNA test in June did not exonerate Chabot in Crosby's murder. But testing on the semen did implicate the key prosecution witness, Chabot's brother-in-law Gerald Pabst. Pabst, who was arrested in the fall of 2007, is the man now tied to the newly discovered DNA.
Prosecutors now believe Pabst lied on the stand about his own role in the crime.
Despite today's court clearance for a new trial Chabot is still viewed as a murder suspect. "I hope he realizes how lucky he is," Campbell said. "He's got a house… paying the bills. My sister-in-law got three bullets in the back of the head."
Chabot's attorney and representatives from The Innocence Project say the discoveries and court actions are all steps are toward justice and that if Chabot is a murderer it must be proven before a jury, not based on the testimony of a man who is now accused of murder himself.
(CBS 11 News/AP)
Click to enlarge
Stumble It!
Reporting
