Anthony Graves: A bad DA nearly cost me my life. Vote for a good one.

(Anthony Graves is the 138th exonerated death row inmate in America. He is a criminal justice expert, the author of “Infinite Hope: How Wrongful Conviction, Solitary Confinement and 12 Years on Death Row Failed to Kill My Soul.” He is also a motivational speaker.) I survived 18½ years in prison — 16 of those years in solitary confinement and 12 years on death row — for a crime I did not commit. It was all because a district attorney cared more about seeing me convicted than seeking the truth. My journey to hell and back began in August 1992. I was a few weeks shy of my 27th birthday when the police knocked on my door in Brenham, my hometown, and arrested me for a gruesome murder. I had an alibi witness, no connection to the crime, no motive and I maintained my innocence from the start. The person who actually committed the crime fingered me as his accomplice before recanting his lie — but the district attorney didn’t care about innocence or guilt. He just wanted to find some way to convict me. His zealousness was matched only by his reckless disregard for the truth. He built a case against me despite my innocence, and I was convicted and sentenced to death.

Because of a district attorney, my death was scheduled twice. Because of a district attorney, as I’ve written before, I will forever be known not only as Anthony Graves, grandfather, father and son, but as United States Death Row Exoneree 138. Voters in Harris County like me will begin the process of choosing our next district attorney during the March 5 primary election and the Nov. 4 general election. Incumbent Kim Ogg faces candidate Sean Teare in the Democratic primary. The winner will take on Republican Dan Simons, who is running unopposed, in the fall. Since my exoneration, I’ve become an advocate for criminal justice reform to prevent similar abuses of power. Here’s what a DA can do to make our communities stronger and safer. We need a district attorney committed to ending the damage that mass incarceration has done to communities, keeping families together and restoring stability to individuals. You shouldn’t be locked up — lose your job and be kept from your family — because you smoked a joint or missed a court date for a minor offense. To prevent wrongful convictions, the district attorney must ensure their office’s conviction integrity unit is well-resourced, staffed by seasoned attorneys and that it is truly independent. It should report directly to the district attorney.