New book details Dallas wrongful conviction case
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Journalist Barbara Bradley Hagerty, left, and Benjamine Spencer, right, spoke about "Bringing Ben Home" in Dallas earlier this month. Photo: Tasha Tsiaperas/Axios
For 34 years, Benjamine Spencer sat in a Texas prison declaring he was innocent of killing a Dallas man in a robbery, even when admitting to the crime could've freed Spencer on parole.
- The Dallas man wrote his wife apology letters for not coming home. "Truth has always meant more to me than my freedom," he said in one note.
Why it matters: Convictions like Spencer's are especially difficult to untangle. There was no physical evidence tying him to the crime, and the guilty verdict was based on faulty eyewitness testimony and a jailhouse informant.
- Ross Perot even paid reward money to a witness.
Driving the news: The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals overturned Spencer's conviction in May, citing false testimony and prosecutors not turning over evidence that could've helped Spencer's defense.
- The case is the subject of a new book, "Bringing Ben Home," which details how difficult it is to right a wrong in the Texas criminal justice system.
Flashback: Spencer was accused of killing Dallas businessman Jeffrey Young, who was robbed, beaten and left in West Dallas in March 1987.
- Spencer was tried twice before he was convicted of aggravated assault in 1988 and sentenced to life in prison.
- Spencer always said he was innocent and said he was miles away when Young was killed.
- Three people later told police they saw Spencer and another man from more than 100 feet away on a dark night. That led to his arrest.
Catch up fast: Journalist Barbara Bradley Hagerty wrote about Spencer in 2018 for The Atlantic. She was convinced the story would make a difference.
- But nothing happened after the story was published. Appellate courts had already upheld Spencer's conviction, even after a state district judge ruled in 2008 that Spencer was innocent.
- The Dallas County district attorney's conviction integrity unit opened an investigation into the case after John Creuzot was elected in 2018 and agreed that the conviction should be overturned.
What they're saying: Hagerty couldn't drop the case after she first wrote about Spencer. She hired a private investigator and traveled to Dallas to interview witnesses.
- "It was so clear Ben Spencer was innocent, and there was nothing I could do about it. I was haunted," Hagerty said at a Dallas event this month to discuss her book.
Between the lines: In the early days, overturned convictions were more frequent due to new DNA testing. Now, it takes much longer to verify early eyewitness testimony and ensure prosecutors turned over all evidence to defense teams.
- Spencer's case is one of more than a dozen wrongful convictions in Dallas that were overturned without DNA evidence.
Zoom out: Black Americans are seven-and-a-half times more likely than white people to be wrongfully convicted of a serious crime and spend more time in prison awaiting exoneration.
- Spencer is just one example of that.
State of play: There have been more than 3,400 exonerations nationwide since 1989.
- In 2001, Texas passed a law that allowed people to apply for post-conviction DNA testing. Since then, there have been 44 exonerations in Dallas.
- In 2007, the Dallas County DA's office became one of the first in the country to create a conviction integrity unit to assess old cases.
What's next: Spencer remains free on bond but will not be fully cleared until Creuzot decides whether to dismiss the case.
- Creuzot has the option to find Spencer "actually innocent," meaning he will be officially exonerated and owed compensation from the state.
Disclosure: The author of this story worked in the Dallas County district attorney's office when Spencer was released on bond.