HOUSTON – James Harris knew he would have to wait a few months, possibly six, but now 11 months have gone by since Texas’ top criminal court first agreed to hear Harris’ plea for freedom.
“I really didn’t want to think that, but deep inside I had a feeling I was gonna get put on hold, just get tossed around,” Harris said.
Harris is awaiting his case to be heard before Texas’ Criminal Court of Appeals, which agreed on last May to do so.
Harris wants to be exonerated after being sentenced to 25 years in prison for a crime he’s long maintained he did not commit. Yet, his case remains pending 11 months later, leaving Harris, a father and grandfather, home on parole just waiting.
“Being a black man caught up in the system, it didn’t take but two days to give me 25 years. So, I knew I wasn’t a priority,” Harris said.
This time last year, he didn’t feel so pessimistic. That was when Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg said her office no longer would prosecute Harris because a DNA test showed no trace of him on the scales and other drug paraphernalia used to convict him.
The decision, along with testimony from the Houston police officer who arrested Harris in 2009, led a judge in Harris County Criminal District Court to recommend the Texas Criminal Court of Appeals hear the case for exoneration.
“Pleaded and pleaded and pleaded and told them it wasn’t me, but it was easy for them to believe the officer,” Harris said of a judge’s decision to sentence him to 25 years in prison.
KPRC 2 first spoke with 46-year-old Harris in May of 2020, following the court’s decision.
According to court documents, a Houston police officer identified Harris as one of two men seen running from a suspected drug house in northeast Houston in 2009. Ten years later, that same officer would testify that he could have caught the wrong man.
Harris, who was released on parole after four years, never gave up his fight for an appeal. Years after the conviction, Harris received a breakthrough: a DNA test showed no trace of his on any of the evidence used to convict him. Also, a check of the city’s gang database led authorities to the man they now believe was in the house.
The arresting officer’s testimony, as outlined in Harris’ Writ of Habeas Corpus, is central to his case. Harris said he often reads the transcript.
“Aranda (the officer who identified Harris) testified that in observing the photos of James Harris and the other suspect he could see how one could misidentify one of them,” Harris read from the testimony outlined in the writ.
“Further down the line, it says, ‘I may have been wrong. I may have. I believe I saw Mr. Harris, but I may have been wrong,’” Harris’ read of the transcript.
“What more do you need,” he asked.
But the case has yet to be heard — partly because the appeals court was missing that transcript from Harris County’s 232nd Criminal District Court, according to court documents. The criminal appeals court confirmed Thursday the court had received the transcript on April 5, adding the case was now pending.
Harris pressure washes houses to make ends meet. He can’t get a good job because of the conviction and still has to make parole payments.
As he waits for his case to be heard, Harris said he feels stuck. However, he’ll never give up hope for justice.
“I break down to a certain extent to where I feel like I want to cry because my life is... I don’t want to say it’s over, but it’s just been shattered,” Harris said.