Texas Man Wrongly Convicted Of Murder Now A Free Man After Appeal

Back in 2002, two men were shot and killed in Corpus Christi in what appeared to be a gang dispute over selling drugs in a rival gang's territory. Two men were indicted in the murders of the 19-year-old men, Joe David Padron and Martin Robles.

Court proceedings took place, and both men were found guilty on different charges. Robles on capital murder and Padron for murder.

Robles was sentenced to death for his role and was executed back in 2011. Padron received life in prison after the jury rejected the death penalty that the prosecution was seeking. That turned out to be life-saving not once, but now twice for Padron.

An Innocent Man?

Padron maintained throughout the entire case that he was innocent and had nothing to do with the murders. There was no concrete or physical evidence that he did anything wrong or killed either of the men, but testimony given by three jailhouse informants ultimately did him in.

These three men mentioned they had overheard Padron confess to murdering the two men. It was the testimony of the informants that ultimately led to the jury convicting Padron. However, 19 years later, things took a dramatic turn.

New Evidence

The Innocence Project of Texas started to dig into the case after hearing about Padron and how he maintained through and through he was innocent. After doing some digging, they did indeed manage to find some things out.

One of the jailhouse informants later recanted his testimony about overhearing Padron confess, while another informant was apparently trying to get on the prosecutor's good side for their own benefit.

The final piece of evidence in favor of Padron came when one of the perpetrators of the murders confessed. This person said that Padron had absolutely nothing to do with it.

Back To Court

In light of the new evidence, Padron was released on bail in 2023. This would happen 19 years after his conviction, but he would get to be out of prison while the Texas Court of Appeals looked into everything.

After anxiously awaiting a decision from the court of appeals, Padron got the best news of his life on April 16th. His conviction had been overturned, and he was now a free man.

In a press release from the Innocence Project, Padron said, "I feel excited and relieved. I’m glad that justice has prevailed. The families of the victims deserve to know the truth. They have been forgotten in all of this."