(Robert Jonathan, Headline USA) A Texas man who served time for murder before being cleared by DNA and other evidence now faces a new murder charge.
In a press release, the Houston Police Department announced the arrest of Lydell Elliott Grant in connection with a fatal shooting.
Grant allegedly opened fire on another motorist on April 6 in southwest Houston over what some media outlets have described as a road-rage incident following by what police have deemed a “minor crash” between their two cars.
Police said the suspect fired multiple rounds at the windshield of other vehicle and fled the area.
Grant was reportedly identified via surveillance footage, ABC Houston affiliate KTRK reported.
Houston police took him into custody the following day on a warrant.
According to the Harris County Sheriff’s office records, he is currently being held in jail subject to a $1 million bond.
As with all pending criminal matters, the presumption of innocence applies.
The victim, age 33, died at the scene in the encounter that occurred shortly before midnight.
Grant, 46, was previously sentenced to life imprisonment for the December 2010 fatal stabbing of man outside a Houston bar. A jury convicted him of murder in early December 2012.
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals eventually declared him innocent in a May 2021 ruling.
Grant’s conviction was based on testimony from six eyewitnesses, one of whom reportedly recanted later.
“With help from the Innocence Project of Texas, new DNA evidence, and a confession from the actual perpetrator, Grant was exonerated in 2019 after serving about eight years in prison,” KTRK added.
Grant was exonerated “after DNA on the victim’s fingernails didn’t match his,” the New York Post recalled.
The above-referenced perpetrator in the stabbing incident pleaded guilty to murder in 2022 and is behind bars.
“We stand behind Mr. Grant’s previous exoneration,” the Innocence Project of Texas said in a statement following Grant’s recent arrest.
“DNA evidence and the confession of the real perpetrator of the crime proved Mr. Grant’s actual innocence,” it continued. “His 2012 conviction was proven wrongful, and he spent eight years in prison as a result.”
The nonprofit organization founded by two criminal defense attorneys in 2006 underscored that it remains dedicated to vindicating those who are wrongly convicted of crimes in the context of “a better and more just society.”
On its website, the organization claims that as many as 9,000 Texas are wrongfully incarcerated.
Wrongly convicted individuals in Texas are eligible to collect up to $80,000 from the state for each year of prison time served.
