On October 16, 2018, Ozell Brandley walked into the downtown Houston office of Mike DeGeurin, a lawyer who had helped exonerate his younger brother, Clarence Brandley. Clarence, who was wrongly convicted in 1981 of the rape and murder of 16-year-old Cheryl Fergeson, had spent nearly a decade on death row until new evidence helped free him in 1990. The only Black janitor on duty the day of the white student’s death in Conroe, the Montgomery County seat, Clarence had been railroaded; exculpatory evidence had been suppressed; and his wrongful conviction and death sentence had generated international publicity.
Gathered around a wooden conference table beside DeGeurin was another of Clarence’s former defense attorneys, Paul Nugent. Next to him were an investigator and a Texas legislator along with current Montgomery County District Attorney Brett Ligon and Clarence’s daughter, Cassie, sitting by her uncle Ozell.
Ozell, a pastor and substitute teacher, began with a prayer, then read a statement: “The late Clarence Lee Brandley and the late Cheryl Fergeson deserve more and better than what they have received from Montgomery County, Texas, and the State of Texas.”
