Quattrone Wrongful Convictions Appellate Clinic Files Amicus Brief in Texas Court of Criminal Appeals in Ex Parte Michael Newberry

The Quattrone Wrongful Convictions Appellate Clinic, a premier initiative of the Ken Starr Institute for Faith, Law, and Public Service at Pepperdine Caruso School of Law, filed an amicus curiae brief in the Court of Criminal Appeals of the State of Texas in Ex parte Michael Newberry (No. WR-62,159-03).

Working alongside alumnus Jimmy Azadian (JD ') of Dykema Gossett PLLC, Pepperdine Caruso Law Quattrone Clinic students, Nikita Patel, Samuel Baron, and Julia Schachtel provided research and drafting for the brief supporting petitioner Michael Newberry, who has spent nearly thirty years in prison on a capital murder conviction that the prosecution no longer defends.

Following a reinvestigation of the case, the Cooke County District Attorney's Office concluded that its former prosecutor knowingly withheld material, exculpatory grand jury testimony and witness statements in violation of Brady v. Maryland. After a two-day live evidentiary hearing, the habeas court similarly recommended a new trial, which the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (“TCCA”) denied. Following a Grant, Vacate, and Remand order from the Supreme Court of the United States, the case returned to the TCCA for reconsideration in light of the state's confession of error. The clinic's amicus brief urges the court to grant relief and grant Newberry a new trial, emphasizing the critical interplay between independent judicial review, habeas factfinding, and prosecutorial candor in correcting wrongful convictions.

Excerpt from the Amicus Curiae Brief in Ex parte Michael Newberry:

"Wrongful convictions are rarely uncovered by the ordinary operation of appellate review. They surface when a prosecutor reopens a file, a habeas court holds a hearing, and a record is developed rather than assumed. The weight this Court gives a prosecutor's considered confession of error therefore determines whether those mechanisms function at all."

"This remand offers this Court the occasion to demonstrate how independent judicial review, adversarial presentation, habeas factfinding, and responsible prosecutorial candor work together to protect the reliability of Texas convictions and to correct a conviction where that reliability has failed."

"Under Texas law, the role of a prosecutor is not simply to obtain convictions, but to see to it that justice is done. . . . When the State agrees to relief after the record has been developed and tested, that position must be understood as an exercise of the prosecutor's public duty, not as a substitute for this Court's independent judgment."

The complete amicus curiae brief was transmitted to the Court of Criminal Appeals of the State of Texas on October 16, 2026.