Death penalty doubts show Tarrant County must maintain fair, honest criminal courts
In a death penalty trial, it’s vital both legal parties get the facts right: Lives are at stake, and the ability of Tarrant County courts to dispense justice fairly is too.
Unfortunately, it appears such care may not have been taken in a capital murder case years ago involving two of the city’s most prominent, respected former prosecutors, Christy Jack and Robert Foran. A new motion filed by District Attorney Sharen Wilson casts doubt not only on the 2008 death sentence for Paul David Storey, but on all others the two prosecutors were involved in — and on the county’s ability to correctly prosecute criminals.
Wilson is asking the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to grant a new punishment trial for Storey. In her motion, the district attorney publicly accuses these two former prosecutors of having a penchant for perjury. Wilson, a pro-death penalty DA, advocates for reducing the sentence to life without parole.
In the Aug. 17 motion, Wilson accuses Jack and Foran of committing “serious … prosecutorial malfeasance” during Storey’s trial. Storey was found guilty of fatally shooting Jonas Cherry, a 28-year-old assistant manager of Putt-Putt Golf and Games in Hurst, during a robbery in 2006.
Wilson says Jack lied during the punishment phase of Storey’s trial to get a death row conviction. Although the victim’s parents had informed prosecutors that they didn’t want Storey to be executed, Jack still told the jury during closing arguments that the victim’s family believed that the death penalty was the best punishment, Wilson says. During appeals a decade later, Jack and Foran lied again.
Jack maintains Wilson is personally attacking her. Jack says when she left the District Attorney’s office to care for her child with disabilities, it left a stain on Wilson’s reputation as an office that’s friendly to working moms.
In an emailed statement to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Jack said she stands by her closing arguments in Storey’s case and passed a polygraph related to the veracity of her testimony.
If Cherry’s parents did indeed inform prosecutors they did not want Storey to receive the death penalty as punishment, this does not guarantee a new punishment trial could have a different result — but it might. Really, either way, that isn’t the point. The point is, according to our current DA, Fort Worth has had two colluding prosecutors cooking up white lies to try and sway a jury toward capital punishment.
This trial occurred during a time in Texas’ history when prosecutors seemed to focus more on convictions and executions rather than seeking justice. But even a “tough on crime” approach doesn’t justify allegedly lying to a jury about a man’s death penalty punishment. That’s not justice, that’s vengeance.
The courts and the state must pursue all aspects of Wilson’s motion to find out once and for all what happened during that trial: Did Jack and Foran lie during the penalty phase, then lie again a year later? The accusations of prosecutorial misconduct have been public since 2017, and it must not go on any longer, even in private practice. If Wilson’s motion is solid, every death penalty case that Jack and Foran touched must be reviewed, and the Bar should investigate.
If the accusations are true, Jack and Foran have stained the criminal courts in Tarrant County with unethical behavior, and prosecutors must work tirelessly to repair it. Every person deserves an equal and fair trial under the law.
If Wilson’s allegations are false – or as Jack described them, personal attacks by an outgoing district attorney – the consequences remain serious to the public’s trust of the justice system. Either way, the damage is done.