A man who spent eight years on Death Row before his case was overturned and then re-arrested on an attempted murder charge and jailed for 22 months, has accepted a plea deal of misdemeanor battery.
The odyssey of Dan Bright may sound like fiction, but is in fact a story of how justice has been done in Orleans Parish under former District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro.
As one the first cases prosecuted by new District Attorney Jason Williams, Bright accepted the plea and was promptly released since he’s already served the six months’ time behind bars.
Bright had been arrested almost two years ago and charged with the stabbing of another man in the Lower Ninth Ward.
Cannizzaro’s office at the time continued to press the case, despite the victim in the matter saying the police had arrested the wrong man.
Even the affidavit submitted by the victim clearly repudiated what the DA’s office was pressing:
"The man who stabbed me was not Dan Bright. The man who stabbed me is taller and heavier than Dan and has dreadlocks.”
Still despite this Cannizzaro’s office continued to hold Bright over for trial, and would only offer a three-year plea deal.
Bright was scheduled to go to trial in March 2020, but the coronavirus slammed the brakes on trials.
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Bright’s defense attorney, Christopher Murrell told the Times-Picayune/New Orleans Advocate the case was due to “lazy, biased, and incompetent police work."
Murrell took the case directly to the new DA on Monday, Williams first day on the job.
Speaking after the matter was finally resolve, Murrell went on to slam former District Attorney Cannizzaro’s office stating: "Everyone who reviewed this case immediately recognized its flaws and weaknesses. Nevertheless, out of petty spite and vindictiveness, Cannizzaro personally offered an unjust plea deal that would have kept Dan in jail three years."
Bright walked free from Orleans Parish Prison at 10pm Thursday night.
Bright was initially freed from Death Row due to the work of the Innocence Project, New Orleans.
The head of the IPNO is now Assistant District Attorney Emily Maw, who is in charge of civil rights cases for the District Attorney’s Office.