Excerpted from "Mean Justice" by Edward Humes, Pocket Star Books, 1999.

Clarence Brandley is released after a decade on Texas' death row. Offical misconduct in his case occured at every level, from police officers who threatened witnesses who could attest to Brandley's innocence, to a trial judge and prosecutor who held secret meetings to rehearse objections and rulings, to prosecutors who destroyed evidence proving Brandley's innocence, to a state attorney general who lied about results of a critical witness's lie-detector test. The only reason for Brandley's arrest; the victim of murder and rape had been a white schoolgirl and the likely perpetrator was one of the five janitors at her school, only one of whom - Brandley - was black. The detective who arrested Brandley told him, "Since you're the nigger, you're elected." He came within days of being executed before a last-ditch appeals ruling saved him. All charges were subsequently dropped. A federal judge who examined the case later wrote: "In the thirty years this court has presided over matters in the judical system, no case has presented a more shocking scenario of the effects of racial prejudice, perjured testimony, witness intimidation, an investigation the outcome of which was predetermined, and public officials who, for whatever motives, lost sight of what is right and just."