Lawyer's remarks on racism lead to reversal of murder conviction
By Associated Press
Published February 20, 2004
TALLAHASSEE - The state Supreme Court on Thursday threw out the murder conviction of a black man because his lawyer told jurors he struggled with prejudice.
Henry Alexander Davis, 38, was sent to death row after an all-white jury convicted him in 1990 of the murder of Joyce Ezell, a white 73-year-old woman who was fatally stabbed in the foyer of her Lake Wales home in 1987.
Davis was deprived of effective representation because of comments by his lawyer, Dan Brawley of Lakeland, the justices ruled. "We are greatly disturbed by trial counsel's blatant acknowledgment to the jury, in defending an African-American defendant accused of an interracial crime, of his negative feelings toward "black people just because they're black,' " Florida's high court wrote in the unsigned opinion.
Brawley declined comment Thursday.
Brawley told prospective jurors during jury selection that sometimes he didn't like black people and felt mad at them. He returned to the topic during closing arguments, asking jurors to "be especially vigilant" that race not be a factor in their deliberations.
According to the trial transcript, Brawley then said: "Because, being a white Southerner, I know where I come from. And I told you a little bit when we were questioning you as to potential jurors about some feelings that I have, and maybe very deep down y'all have them too."
"Whether or not counsel is in fact a racist, his expressions of prejudice against African-Americans cannot be tolerated," the court said.
Last year, a trial judge overturned Davis' death sentence and ordered a new sentencing hearing, but upheld the conviction.
The high court also noted that Brawley didn't call potential witnesses who could have testified that two other men were in Ezell's home and that he failed to talk to the defendants' family and friends to discover whether there were factors that might have led to a life sentence.
