ALBERT BURRELL: SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR A DOUBLE MURDER HE DID NOT COMMIT
56" X 78" _ Acrylic, Latex and Spraypaint
on Canvas
Albert spent fourteen years on death row at Angola State Prison in Louisiana for a crime he did not commit. He was convicted
of the same crime as Michael Graham: the brutal murder of an elderly couple in northern Louisiana. Albert, who is mentally challenged
and unable to read or write, came within seventeen days of execution in 1996.
Albert’s case is an example of serious prosecutorial
misconduct. With no physical evidence linking him to the crime, he was convicted largely on the testimony of a jail house snitch,
Olan Wayne Brantley, who a law enforcement official acknowledged as, “Lyin’ Wayne.” Mr. Brantley said that Albert, while in
jail, had confessed to killing the elderly couple. Mr. Brantley admitted at his trial that he had spent time in several mental
hospitals and that he had written so many bad checks that he could not keep track of them. The prosecution did not disclose
that a plea bargain had been made with Mr. Brantley, or that Mr. Brantley had previously been found to be mentally incompetent.
No
witness put Albert at the scene of the killing, nor did the ballistic tests of his guns link him to the deaths.
The kind of prosecutorial
misconduct present in Albert’s case is not unusual. It is a problem that is inherent in the criminal justice system.
Upon
his release from prison, Albert, like Michael Graham, was issued a denim jacket several sizes too large and a ten dollar check for
transportation.
Convicted: 1987
Exonerated: 2001