Who Is To Blame In 48 Hour's Grave Injustice?

Most think that the justice system gets it right most of the time. Unfortunately this is not the case. Many people go to prison or end up on death row despite being innocent, like Anthony Graves. In 48 Hour’s “Grave Injustice” we see Anthony Graves’ case; Graves was put on death row for a crime he did not commit. In this case like many others out there the fault is not in the system itself but the people. In the Graves case there were many discrepancies that came to light after the conviction.. Once the trial started in 1994, things got ugly. Carter changed his testimony on more than one occasion. Carter’s allegations went from including Graves to not including Graves and his story went back and forth this way. Just before he hit the stand Carter recanted once again; his lawyer, Charles Sebesta decided not to tell anyone about this change in testimony. According to Sebesta, “I [Sebesta[would have hated to have gone to the jury without Carter's testimony.”
The murder charges were dropped and Anthony Graves became a free man. The state of Texas paid him $1.4 million saying it was what 18 years of being locked up was worth. The amount of money paid out might seem like a lot but there is more than monetary loss at hand. Graves missed out on his kids growing up. There is no price for that. I don’t think there is enough money in the world to compensate for all the things taken away when someone is erroneously convicted. In Anthony’s case the main reason behind his imprisonment was Sebesta. Sebesta corroborated witnesses, held information from the court, and threatened witnesses of the defense. Had there been no foul play Graves would have not been sentenced to death and the justice system would have provided justice. Unfortunately the system is run by people therefore justice is compromised on occasion. This case is one of few that work out; what about the cases where there is no intervention and the truth is