News

8/11/04 A free man, after 42 years

By ASHLEY COOK, The Lufkin Daily News

A 76-year-old prisoner serving a life sentence for robbery walked out of the Angelina County Jail a free man on Tuesday after a judge dismissed a 42-year-old conviction against him. Court documents state he falsely admitted to the crime after Angelina sheriff's deputies broke his hand to force a confession.

Hours after he was released, Robert Carroll Coney said he never gave up hope he'd be exonerated for the March 7, 1962, robbery. Coney said he was sure his identity was confused with that of a man he'd carpooled with through Lufkin the day of the crime.

Coney, a two-time military veteran, has spent the majority of his life since the conviction sitting in one prison or another in several states, including Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi. In 2003, he returned to the Ferguson Unit in Midway, Texas, to serve the remaining portion of his life sentence after serving several years in a Mississippi prison, according to Ferguson administrative hearing records on file at the Angelina County Courthouse. It was not clear why he was serving time in Mississippi. Coney was moved between several Texas prisons in 2003, including the Byrd Unit in Huntsville and the Ramsey Unit in Rosharon, according to Coney's letters from prison filed at the courthouse.

Many holes remain in Coney's history. Over time, documents have been lost or destroyed. Most of the people involved in his 1962 arrest and conviction, including judges, court reporters, attorneys and law enforcement, have since died. The district attorney at time was John Hannah, who died late last year.

Coney on Tuesday said while waiting in prison for weeks in 2003 after returning to Texas, it was a prison system record-keeper in Huntsville who finally found his original paperwork buried in a closed case file.

"If it weren't for her, they would have never found it," Coney said.

State District Judge David Wilson, who dismissed Coney's charges on Tuesday, personally conducted an investigation into the case ending in November 2003. Wilson's results, detailed in Coney's case file under a document titled, "Findings of fact and conclusions of law," alleges that then-Angelina County Sheriff Leon Jones and his deputies were known for using physical force to extract confessions. In the findings, Wilson described a procedure where prisoners' fingers were crushed between jail cell bars until they confessed.

Wilson questioned Coney in court on Tuesday about what violence he may have seen or experienced at the hands of deputies.

"I remember the sheriff well," Coney said, startling the judge and courtroom observers as he held high two twisted and bent fingers.

Coney in a telephone call late from Dallas late Tuesday described the night in jail when then-Sheriff Jones turned his back and walked away just before two jailers slammed his hand into a metal door frame. After his conviction, prison officials sent him for corrective surgery to avoid having to amputate his hand, Coney said.

Coney was afraid not to confess after deputies threatened his life, he stated in court documents. Deputies closed in on him and said, "N-----, we should take you somewhere and shoot your black a-- all to pieces," Coney stated.

Attorney David P. O'Neil, of Huntsville, who worked on Coney's case, said he hadn't seen anything like it in 25 years of practicing criminal law.

"It really contains everybody's worst fears about what went on during certain darker years in this country," O'Neil said.

Wilson in an interview in his chambers on Tuesday said Coney probably saw an attorney for the first time as he stood before then-Judge J.W. Summers, now deceased, to enter a guilty plea. He talked with Coney's then-court-appointed lawyer in 2003, Gilbert Spring, now retired, Wilson said. Spring couldn't recall Coney's case, Wilson said, but described the court's habit in the 1960s of calling attorneys to stand with a defendant who entered a plea, often for no money.

Spring said it was common practice for the sheriff or district attorney to "work out a deal" for unrepresented, indigent defendants, who never saw a lawyer until their pleas were given to the judge, according to Wilson. No evidence beyond what was likely a reading of the confession was presented, Wilson's findings stated.

Wilson said he also interviewed Hannah, who later became a federal judge, about Coney, but Hannah did not recall the case.

"A man who twice volunteers to serve his country comes home only to find out everything he fought for belongs only to certain people," O'Neill said. "Until today ... he was never able to reap the full benefits of the Constitution he fought for. Many would have given up along the way, or died trying." After his conviction in Angelina County, Coney was sent to Richland County, S.C., to face an unnamed charge, according to Wilson's findings. Several successful escapes followed, Wilson stated. Coney apparently escaped from jail in South Carolina, and was later picked up in Louisiana, where he again escaped. He was later recaptured, convicted, and sent to Angola Prison in Louisiana. While serving as a trustee, he escaped, but was again captured. Wilson's findings show Coney spend time in federal penitentiaries in Leavenworth, Kan.,, as well as in Mississippi and Georgia. A chronology and description of his convictions at those institutions were not available, Wilson stated.

Over the years, family members and friends, including lawyers and prison guards he met along the way, wrote a stream of letters to judges, calling for Coney's release. Wilson in his findings, stated the mystery of why Coney waited so many years to fight for a dismissal was solved after he talked to a prison records clerk in Huntsville. The clerk said Coney had been out of Texas custody for more than 21 years, Wilson said on Tuesday.

It wasn't clear to Wilson if Coney had been in prison in another state, or remained free over that time. Coney said he had been in prison all but one of the past 41 years, serving time most recently in Mississippi.

In 1973, a Texas trial court judge set aside Coney's conviction after considering a writ of habeas corpus, sentencing him to time already served, according to a document titled "Order to set aside and vacate sentence," on file at the courthouse. In a writ of habeas corpus, a person in custody requests to appear before a judge to determine if they are illegally imprisoned.

It remains unclear what happened after that. Coney, in letters to the district clerk, and Wilson said he was never told about the ruling. Some question remains as to whether the court had jurisdiction to rule on the case, according to Wilson's findings. The trial court never filed any findings of fact, and Coney's writ was never forwarded to the court of criminal appeals, Wilson's findings stated.

Coney said he and his wife wished to thank Wilson for being a "fair and honest person." It was a judge he met years earlier who inspired him learn the Constitution, and to never to give up fighting for the truth, Coney said.

"He said, 'That is what's going to free you. It might not be today or tomorrow, but it works,'" Coney said.

Coney's plans for the future are simple; enjoying a family dinner with grandchildren full-grown since he saw them last, and fixing things around the house for his wife of nearly 50 years. Surprisingly, he's not bitter. "I'm going to try to pick up the pieces. If I was angry, what could I do about it?" Coney said.

Holding his wife by the hand just after his release early Tuesday, Coney found it difficult to express his feelings.

"We're going home," he said, simply.

"You've got a lot of years left," said attorney John Dejean, who would drive the couple back home to Dallas.

Coney said he may pursue a civil lawsuit at some point, but he wasn't going to rush into anything. O'Neil said his office was working on a few cases of wrongful conviction, but nothing as striking as Coney's story.

"It makes you wonder how many other stories are out there like this" he said.

Ashley Cook's e-mail address is acook@coxnews.com