A legislative subcommittee Tuesday rejected a $460,000 Claims Commission award to a former Clark County man who served more than 11 years in prison before a special prosecutor dropped the charges against him.
The commission awarded Gyronne Buckley, who now lives in Houston, that sum in December after it found South Central Drug Task Force agent Keith Ray's actions resulted in Buckley's "wrongful conviction" and incarceration. The Arkansas Supreme Court eventually ordered a new hearing over whether evidence was withheld, and a special prosecutor assigned to the case declined to pursue a new trial in December 2010.
Ray led the investigation, and he and his agents failed to disclose a videotape that would have undermined the state's case, Buckley's attorneys argued.
The legislative subcommittee denied the claim on a voice vote with Sen. Linda Chesterfield, D-Little Rock, abstaining. The subcommittee's decision requires final approval from the Arkansas Legislative Council.
The claim marked the second time that the Claims Commission approved a wrongful-conviction award. In 2006, the commission awarded $200,000 to Rodney Bragg, who was also investigated by Ray. Bragg was released from prison in 2000 after the agent admitted to falsifying evidence against him.
Attorney General Dustin McDaniel appealed the Buckley decision and argued the case himself to the Arkansas Legislative Council Claims Review Subcommittee, the first time he said he has done so since he took office in 2007.
The attorney general said that agents "wrongfully" withheld evidence because another task force agent -- but not Ray -- had failed to turn over a videotape of a police interview with the confidential informant who testified against Buckley. But McDaniel said the commission "grossly erred" and exceeded its authority in awarding the claim, because it was not authorized by law.
McDaniel said Ray was a "dirty cop" who had perjured himself and falsified evidence in Bragg's case but that there was no evidence that the agent had manipulated Buckley's investigation. The attorney general said it was "pure luck" that Ray also worked on Buckley's investigation.
"Just because somebody in their appellate process gets their conviction overturned, gets the opportunity of a new trial, and the prosecutor says, 'Look, he's served long enough, I'm not going to retry him, we're done with this, justice has been served,' that doesn't mean a) that he didn't do it and it surely doesn't mean b) that he can sue us," McDaniel said.
Prosecutors never charged Ray with a crime in either case.
After the meeting, McDaniel said he thought the subcommittee made the right decision.
"Obviously it's a very complicated case and I thought that the risk of the petitioners confusing the issues and creating a significantly harmful precedent was serious. So I wanted to personally, as the attorney general, try to do my job to serve the general assembly and the public at large by trying to help the members sort through this case," McDaniel said.
In filings with the commission, Buckley's attorneys wrote that the videotape wasn't turned over until after an Arkansas Supreme Court order in 2010 and that it showed the informant contradicting his court testimony at least 38 times. The tape would have been made available to the defense if police had handed it over to the prosecutor, the attorneys wrote.
Buckley had never been convicted of a drug-related crime when police arrested him in January 1999 and a prosecutor charged him with two counts of delivery of a controlled substance. He was convicted and sentenced to two consecutive life sentences.
The next year, the Arkansas Supreme Court reversed and remanded the case for resentencing because the trial court allowed improper testimony. Buckley was then sentenced to 56 years in prison, and the high court affirmed it in 2002.
Buckley's attorneys filed several appeals in state and federal court, which led to the discovery of the tape's existence. In 2010, the state Supreme Court reopened the case and ordered the lower court to consider whether the tape should have been turned over to Buckley's attorneys.
Pulaski County Prosecuting Attorney Larry Jegley, the special prosecutor, made a motion to "nolle prosse," or drop, the charges against Buckley, who was released from prison on Nov. 1, 2010.
Any new charges against Buckley would have had to be filed by Dec. 6, 2011, but a judge granted a motion to expunge the conviction and seal the case.
Claims Commission Director Norman Hodges said his agency attempted to track down Ray for Buckley's hearing but that the agent has not been heard from in more than eight years. He said Ray resigned soon after the prosecuting attorney in Clark County confronted him about his testimony in the Bragg case. The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette could not track down a telephone number for Ray.
Hodges said the commission found Buckley's case to be similar to Bragg's claim, which the Legislature paid in March 2007.
Rep. Ann Clemmer, R-Benton, questioned how the commission's decision in Buckley's claim would affect other cases.
"I am somewhat concerned that we are setting a precedent for every time there's been a mistake made by a public official that results in a wrongful conviction that we are automatically liable [to compensate them]," Clemmer said.
Sen. Jeremy Hutchinson, R-Little Rock, said he was "afraid" that if the subcommittee approved the payment, it would affect how prosecutors made decisions on how to pursue cases.
"I appreciate prosecutorial discretion and I think it's critical to a fair justice system ... [If the claim is approved], I'm afraid that prosecutors may look at other things besides justice," Hutchinson said.
Mark Hampton, one of Buckley's attorneys, said he was concerned about police never being held accountable.
"You're sending a message if we don't award something to Mr. Buckley that cops can do whatever they want to," Hampton said.
After the meeting, Hampton said he wasn't hopeful that the full Legislative Council would reverse the subcommittee's decision.
Front on 07/09/2014