Travis County District Attorney’s Office Dismisses the Case Against Billy Faircloth After the Texas Court of Criminal of Appeals Overturns His Conviction
Travis County, TX – Today, Travis County District Attorney José Garza announced that our office filed a motion to dismiss the Aggravated Assault with a Deadly Weapon case against Billy Faircloth based on insufficient evidence after the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals granted post-conviction relief to Mr. Faircloth.
On Wednesday, March 29, 2023, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals overturned Mr. Faircloth’s conviction based on the faulty DNA evidence presented during his trial in 2012.
“The process to review cases stemming from the APD DNA lab involved stakeholders from the city, the county, forensic experts, the defense, and the prosecution. We believe the victim in this case was assaulted in a parking garage; however, due to the unreliability of the DNA evidence presented at trial, we cannot prove who committed the assault,” said Travis County District Attorney José Garza. “Our hearts go out to the family of the victim who have had to watch this process unfold, and we are grateful to all the stakeholders for the care and attention they paid to Mr. Faircloth’s case to see that justice was done.”
The Travis County District Attorney’s Office Conviction Integrity Unit reviewed Billy Faircloth’s conviction after his case was brought to our attention by the defendant’s counsel, the Forensic Project Capital Area Defender Service. The case was part of a joint review project with the TCDAO and the Forensic Project that looked at convictions that stemmed out of the APD DNA lab after it was shut down by the Texas Forensic Science Commission in 2016.
Background and Timeline
On March 1, 2011, a Travis County Grand Jury indicted Mr. Faircloth of Aggravated Assault with a Deadly Weapon for an offense that occurred on February 15, 2011.
On February 15, 2012, a Travis County Jury convicted Billy Faircloth of the offense of Aggravated Assault with a Deadly Weapon and sentenced him to 60 years in prison.
In 2016, DNA Experts appointed by the Texas Forensic Science Commission conducted an audit of the Austin Police Department DNA Lab and identified significant problems. Some of the problems found included using an unaccepted scientific method for evaluating DNA, inadequate supervision of analysts, and practices in place that encouraged confirmation bias of results.
On November 20, 2018, Mr. Faircloth’s post-conviction counsel filed an Application for Writ of Habeas Corpus regarding the reliability of the DNA mixture interpretations. After the filing, Mr. Faircloth’s attorneys requested more time to gather discovery, and TCDAO agreed to stay in the proceedings.
On July 20, 2022, the Forensic Project Capital Area Defender Service filed a Memorandum in Support of the Amended Application for Writ of Habeas Corpus on three grounds. TCDAO agreed to the first ground that Mr. Faircloth’s right to due process under the United States and Texas Constitutions was violated, and he is entitled to habeas corpus relief from the judgment pursuant to Texas Code of Criminal Procedure 11.073 because new scientific evidence revealed that inconclusive and unreliable DNA evidence was relied upon to secure Mr. Faircloth’s conviction which was not known by the analyst at the time of the trial.
On August 19, 2022, the Travis County District Attorney’s Office Conviction Integrity Unit filed the State’s Original Answer to Amended Article 11.07 Writ Application and requested that the 460th Criminal District Court grant the writ of habeas and recommend that the Court of Criminal Appeals set aside the judgment and remand this case to this Court for a new trial.
On September 29, 2022, the Travis County District Attorney’s Office Conviction Integrity Unit (CIU) joined Billy Faircloth’s counsel, the Forensic Project Capital Area Defender Service, in requesting his release, and as a result, Judge Selena Alvarenga signed an order to release Mr. Faircloth on bond. Our office joined his counsel in arguing that Mr. Faircloth was entitled to relief and that his conviction should be vacated based on the faulty DNA evidence presented during his trial in 2012.
The Travis County District Attorney’s Office Conviction Integrity Unit (CIU) The TCDAO CIU investigates prior convictions to ensure that no innocent person convicted in the county remains in prison. or has a conviction on their record. The CIU, as established by Travis County District Attorney José Garza in 2021, reviews cases when there is a claim of faulty science or a wrongful conviction from either a person who has a claim of wrongful conviction, a family member, or any other member of the trial team including a prosecutor or defense attorney. The review of convictions stemming out of the APD DNA Lab began under the CIU of the previous administration and is still ongoing. Given the volume of cases the CIU is evaluating, the APD DNA Lab cases are just one part of the work they are doing.
In 2021, Travis County District Attorney José Garza hired two experienced attorneys and an investigator for the unit with extensive relevant criminal justice expertise, including in forensic science, to review old cases, investigate post-conviction claims of wrongful convictions, and provide recommendations.
Mr. Faircloth is the second convicted person to claim that the evidence from the APD DNA Lab used against him resulted in a wrongful conviction and a prison sentence. In the case of Areli Escobar, TCDAO agreed that the APD DNA evidence was not reliable and that Mr. Escobar would not have been convicted without it. Mr. Escobar was sentenced to death, and his defense attorneys took his case to the United States Supreme Court to ask for relief. In January 2023, the U.S.
Supreme Court directed the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to reconsider its decision to let Mr. Escobar be executed, even though our office agreed that his conviction should be thrown out because it relied on potentially faulty and misleading DNA evidence during his 2011 trial.
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