Michael Roy Toney (December 29, 1965 – October 3, 2009) was charged and wrongfully convicted in 1999 for a bombing that killed three people and injured two others in

Lake Worth, Texas Lake Worth is a city in Tarrant County, Texas, United States. The population was 4,584 at the 2010 census. The city is adjacent to, and named after, Lake Worth, a popular recreational lake in the northwestern portion of Tarrant County. Geography ...

, in 1985.Texas Department of Criminal Justice
Toney was

sentenced to death Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...

and spent ten years on death row. On December 17, 2008, Toney's conviction was vacated by the

Texas Court of Criminal Appeals The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (CCA) is the court of last resort for all criminal matters in Texas. The Court, which is based in the Supreme Court Building in Downtown Austin, is composed of a Presiding Judge and eight judges. Article V of ...

because of prosecutorial misconduct.Death Penalty Information Center
/ref> Toney was released from custody in September 2009 and died in a car accident about a month later.

Early life

Toney grew up in

Cottonwood, California Cottonwood is a census-designated place (CDP) in Shasta County, California, United States. Its population is 6,268 as of the 2020 census, up from 3,316 from the 2010 census. Cottonwood was a stagecoach town where a settlement was established in 1 ...

, a small town in

Shasta County Shasta County (), officially the County of Shasta, is a county in the northern portion of the U.S. state of California. Its population is 182,155 as of the 2020 census, up from 177,223 from the 2010 census. The county seat is Redding. Shasta ...

about north of

Sacramento ) , image_map = Sacramento County California Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Sacramento Highlighted.svg , mapsize = 250x200px , map_caption = Location within Sacramento ...

. His father left the family early in his life, and his mother worked in local taverns. She would bring home a number of men who would beat her and her sons. To escape from this, Toney would often retreat to a shed. When Toney was 9 or 10 years old, one of her boyfriends strapped him to a chair,

duct-tape Duct tape (also called duck tape, from the cotton duck cloth it was originally made of) is cloth- or scrim-backed pressure-sensitive tape, often coated with polyethylene. There are a variety of constructions using different backings and adhesi ...

d his wrists down and set fire to his hands. When he was 15, another one of his mother's boyfriends attacked him with a

fishing gaff In fishing, a gaff is a handheld pole with a sharp hook or sideway spike on the distal end, which is used to swing and stab into the body of a large fish like a pickaxe, and then pull the fish out of the water like using a pike pole. Ideally, th ...

and gouged a huge hole in his hip. He quit school before the 10th grade and left for Texas, settling down in Hurst-Euless, in the

Bedford Bedford is a market town in Bedfordshire, England. At the 2011 Census, the population of the Bedford built-up area (including Biddenham and Kempston) was 106,940, making it the second-largest settlement in Bedfordshire, behind Luton, whilst ...

area of

Tarrant County Tarrant County is located in the U.S. state of Texas. As of 2020, it had a population of 2,110,640. It is Texas' third-most populous county and the 15th-most populous in the United States. Its county seat is Fort Worth. Tarrant County, one of 2 ...

. He married a woman named Kim when he was 38 years old.Case Story

Case

On the evening of

Thanksgiving Day Thanksgiving is a national holiday celebrated on various dates in the United States, Canada, Grenada, Saint Lucia, Liberia, and unofficially in countries like Brazil and Philippines. It is also observed in the Netherlander town of Leiden a ...

, November 28, 1985, in the Hilltop Mobile Home Park between Lake Worth and

Azle, Texas Azle ( ) is a small city west of Fort Worth in Parker and Tarrant Counties in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 10,947. Azle is the home of the Azle Marching Green Pride marching band and the Fighting Azle ...

, several members of the Blount family were celebrating the holiday together in the Blounts' trailer. The family included Joe Blount, a 44-year-old skilled mechanic; his wife Susan; their 15-year-old daughter Angela; their son Robert; Joe's brother Carl; and Michael Columbus, Carl's son. After the family ate Thanksgiving dinner, Ray Blount went home around 5:00 p.m. Around 9:00 p.m., Susan Blount went to lie down for a nap. Joe Blount drove Robert, Angela and Michael to a

convenience store A convenience store, convenience shop, corner store or corner shop is a small retail business that stocks a range of everyday items such as coffee, groceries, snack foods, confectionery, soft drinks, ice creams, tobacco products, lottery ticket ...

about half a mile away from the park where they bought snacks and beer. Susan soon heard a knock at the front door. She looked out the window but did not see anybody, so she returned to her nap. When the rest of family returned from the convenience store, they discovered a

briefcase A briefcase is a narrow hard-sided box-shaped bag or case used mainly for carrying papers and equipped with a handle. Lawyers commonly use briefcases to carry briefs to present to a court, hence the name. Businesspeople and other white collar ...

on the doorstep. The three teenagers were excited because they thought that the briefcase might have either money or jewels in it. After bringing the briefcase inside, Angela opened the latches and it exploded. Joe, Angela, and Michael were killed when a bomb in the briefcase exploded.

Conviction

In June 1997, Toney was in jail awaiting a hearing for a

burglary Burglary, also called breaking and entering and sometimes housebreaking, is the act of entering a building or other areas without permission, with the intention of committing a criminal offence. Usually that offence is theft, robbery or murder ...

that happened in 1993. Here he was talking to Charles "Jack" Ferris in Parker County Jail in

Weatherford, Texas Weatherford ( ) is a city and the county seat of Parker County, Texas, United States. In 2020, its population was 30,854. Weatherford is named after Thomas J. Weatherford, a State senator and advocate for Texas’ secession to the Confederate S ...

. The two men began talking about the bombing. Ferris was then released from jail by telling the Parker County authorities that Toney had confessed to him. After Ferris told the authorities, the investigators questioned Toney's ex-wife. In the beginning, Ms. Toney told prosecutors, "Michael killing people in a bombing? You're nuts." But Ms. Toney decided to do some research on the case. When she realized what had taken place, she called federal agents and told her story. Soon after, Toney was indicted for

capital murder Capital murder was a statutory offence of aggravated murder in Great Britain, and Northern Ireland, and the Republic of Ireland, which was later adopted as a legal provision to define certain forms of aggravated murder in the United States. In som ...

. Months passed, and Ferris changed his story about Toney's alleged confession to the crime. Ferris explained how Toney had come up with the story in order to get him out of jail earlier. He told investigators that "Toney and me made up the entire thing."

Trial

The trial started in May 1999, in Fort Worth, Texas. Susan and Robert Blount gave their

testimony In law and in religion, testimony is a solemn attestation as to the truth of a matter. Etymology The words "testimony" and "testify" both derive from the Latin word ''testis'', referring to the notion of a disinterested third-party witness. La ...

as to what happened that day. Then the testimony from his ex-wife, his ex-best friend and another cellmate occurred. His ex-wife said that she, Toney and his best friend Chris Meeks went to a

propane Propane () is a three-carbon alkane with the molecular formula . It is a gas at standard temperature and pressure, but compressible to a transportable liquid. A by-product of natural gas processing and petroleum refining, it is commonly used a ...

shop that was adjacent to the Hilltop Mobile Home Park. She says that Toney got out of the truck with a briefcase and disappeared. She then said he returned without the briefcase and they then went to the Nature Center and stayed for several hours. Her testimony also included that Toney shot a

beaver Beavers are large, semiaquatic rodents in the genus ''Castor'' native to the temperate Northern Hemisphere. There are two extant species: the North American beaver (''Castor canadensis'') and the Eurasian beaver (''C. fiber''). Beavers ar ...

with a rifle while they were at the Nature Center. A cellmate of Michael Toney, Finis Blankenship, testified that Toney told him that he was paid $5,000 for the murders. Blankenship also said that the murders were part of a drug-related hit, but the bomb was put on the wrong doorstep. His testimony came in the second phase of the trial. This helped the jury decide whether Toney deserved to be executed. This testimony showed the jury that Toney had a motive for the crime. At the time, Blankenship was facing two counts of indecency with a child and habitual-criminal charges, so he says that he agreed to testify against Toney in exchange for having the charges dropped. Blankenship now says that his testimony was a lie. Chris Meeks' testimony didn't coincide with all of Ms. Toney's testimony. Meeks changed his story four times. At first he told investigators that he knew nothing about the bombing as well as the

grand jury A grand jury is a jury—a group of citizens—empowered by law to conduct legal proceedings, investigate potential criminal conduct, and determine whether criminal charges should be brought. A grand jury may subpoena physical evidence or a pe ...

. He also failed a

polygraph A polygraph, often incorrectly referred to as a lie detector test, is a device or procedure that measures and records several physiological indicators such as blood pressure, pulse, respiration, and skin conductivity while a person is asked an ...

test. In 2001, he signed an

affidavit An ( ; Medieval Latin for "he has declared under oath") is a written statement voluntarily made by an ''affiant'' or '' deponent'' under an oath or affirmation which is administered by a person who is authorized to do so by law. Such a statemen ...

taking back the things he said during his testimony. He said, "My testimony about the events that happened on Thanksgiving day, 1985, may not have happened on that day." Toney said that he did not hear about the crime until 1997. He said that he had never been to the Hilltop Mobile Home Park and that he didn't he even know it existed until just prior to his trial. Ms. Toney and Mr. Meeks said that Toney was driving a truck on the night of the bombing. However, Toney said that he didn't buy the truck until December 13, 1985, a month after the incident.

Conviction overturned

The Tarrant County District Attorney's Office had withheld 14 pieces of evidence that were key to his defense. After this, Tarrant County prosecutors turned the case over to the

Attorney General In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general or attorney-general (sometimes abbreviated AG or Atty.-Gen) is the main legal advisor to the government. The plural is attorneys general. In some jurisdictions, attorneys general also have exec ...

of Texas. The State of Texas subsequently dropped all charges against him and he was released on September 2, 2009. He died in an auto accident near

Rusk, Texas Rusk is a city and the county seat of Cherokee County in the U.S. state of Texas. At the 2020 United States census, it had a population of 5,285. History The town was established by an act of the Texas Legislature on April 11, 1846. It was named ...

, on October 3, 2009.Innocent Cowboy in Texas
/ref>Dallas Justice
/ref>

References