Geraldo Rivera Reports "Deadly Justice"

Anthony Graves was 29-years-old when he was convicted of killing an entire Texas family and sentenced to die. His death row story underscores just what law enforcement will do when they believe they got the right man. But Graves says even in his worst nightmare, he doesn’t find himself killing anyone. By most accounts, Graves was a good father and hard-working man. He had a minor criminal record for possession of marijuana.  He admits he’s scared.  “Of course you know, I mean I see executions go on around me like everyday. I mean nobody in their right mind wouldn’t be scared whether they innocent or not,” says Graves It’s difficult for Anthony Graves to find sympathy. He’s convicted of committing a multiple murder - the kind of horrific crime that makes three out of four Texans support the death penalty - none more so than Robert Davis, the man whose family Anthony Graves was convicted of slaughtering. “This is a sad situation here. Nothing like this ever happened around here,” says Robert Davis. In the early morning of August 18, 1992, Davis’ family, his sister, niece, and four children were bludgeoned, shot and stabbed to death - their bodies then doused with gasoline and set on fire.  Davis says, “you ever been to a funeral where it’s six caskets? You don’t want to go.”  Davis owns a local barbecue restaurant in Lyons, Texas - a small town just outside of Houston. His belief is that the death penalty is not punishment enough for the likes of Anthony Graves. “Death? Too good. See, not the way they murdered these kids. My sister was stabbed 29 times. Plus, the back of her head was knocked off with a hammer. My niece was shot five times - in the head, once in the mouth. Those other little kids, little bitty kids were stabbed so many times.” Graves is on death row because of one man - Robert Carter. Police had no leads until Carter showed up at the victims’ funeral. The local prosecutor was, and remains Charles Sebesta. “Robert Carter, the father of one of the children that was killed, appeared with a good deal of bandages about his face and arms,” says Sebesta. Carter’s bandages were a dead giveaway. They covered the burns he suffered while torching the six gasoline-soaked bodies. Carter would be arrested and charged with capital murder - but the authorities were convinced he could not have done so much killing alone. They believed his wife was involved - and indicted her too. That’s when Robert Carter pointed a finger at his wife’s cousin.Graves asks the question, “why me? Out of all of the people in the world, why me?" What makes Anthony Grave’s question so difficult to answer is the muddled pattern of Robert Carter’s testimony. Just a few days before Graves’ trial, Carter changed his story, telling prosecutors he committed all of the murders himself. “And, yes, at that point he did tell us that, ‘Oh, I did it myself, I did it.’ He did tell us that,” says Sebesta.  But prosecutors believed Graves was guilty and made a deal with Carter. In exchange for his testimony against Graves, his wife would be left alone. Sebesta details the deal prosecutors made. “We said... ‘Would you do this? If we don’t ask you any questions about your wife and her involvement, will you testify?’ Robert agreed. He said, ‘I will come in and I will tell the story.’ And he did.” But Anthony Graves’ attorneys were never told that Robert Carter had changed his story.  “If you take Carter’s testimony away from this trial, you have no physical evidence. You have no corroborative evidence whatsoever,” says Jay Burnette, a former Texas criminal court judge. Burnette has sentenced his fair share of men to death row. But now he is Anthony Grave’s appellate attorney. He believes the prosecutor’s failure to disclose Carter’s recantation violated the law. “Whether he believed it or not, he knew it absolved the person he was prosecuting,” he says. D.A. Charles Sebesta says that defense attorneys were fully aware that Robert Carter changed his story on several occasions. But with Carter’s damaging testimony, Graves’ only hope rested in his alibi. Where was he? “I was at my mother’s apartment with my brother, my sister and my girlfriend. That’s where I was,” he says. Graves says his brother testified on his behalf. “I testified that Anthony was there the whole time, no one ever came to the house for him or for any other reason,” says Arthur Graves. But he didn’t convince prosecutors Sebesta says, “we cross-examined him just like we cross-examined every witness and the jury simply didn’t believe his brother.” The two other alibi witnesses - his girlfriend, Yolanda Mathis, and his sister, Dietrich Graves - never testified. They say before taking the stand prosecutors scared them off “I stood up and said, ‘Judge, when they call Yolanda Mathis, we would ask outside the presence of the jury that the court warn her of her rights,’” prosecutor Sebesta says. “‘She is a suspect in these murders and it is quite possible, at some point in the future, she might be indicted.’” Yolonda never was indicted but the implied threat kept her off the witness stand. Mathis says, “I started crying and just didn’t do it because I was scared.” “It’s supposed to have been about the truth coming out. But that man went in there and tried to win at all costs,” says Anthony Graves. “We had nothing to do with her refusing to testify in that trial,” says Sebesta. To this day prosecutors are convinced Graves is guilty and that Robert Carter’s testimony helped send a murderer to death row.

Follow the links below to read other publications and news articles about Anthony's case

Click here for Anthony's story featured in the Houston Chronicle

Read the "Justice Denied" article on Anthony's wrongful conviction

Read about Anthony's case at the "Cell Door" web site

Click here to read Anthony's story featured by CBS news

National Public Radio's transcript on Anthony's case

Click here to read Robert Carter's final statement on TDCJ's web site

Read the "Innocence Project" article done about Anthony