Granville Riddle has been on death row in Texas for more as ten years, since he was 19 years old. His case is now in Federal Court and he is looking for better legal representation.

What is notable about Granville's case is that the state's expert witness at his trial was Dr Ralph Erdmann, the "famous"  pathologist convicted in 1992 of faking autopsies and knowingly giving false testimony in many homicide cases. Because of this he is now in prison himself.

Granville said Mr Bennett attacked and tried to sexually assault and thus he acted in self defense. He testified that he first hit him in the knee with a tire iron and only after that did not stop Mr Bennett he hit him in the head. Dr Erdmann, however, testified that there were no knee injuries and therefore it was not self-defense. On the basis of Dr Erdmann's testimony Granville was convicted and sentenced to death. Considering Dr Erdmann's history of giving false testimony in homidde cases to support the prosecution's theories, however absurd they may have been, it seems likely that his testimony in Granville's case was not truthful either. This would mean that Granville's conviction is wrong and should have been a much lesser one.

Granville's state appointed lawyers, however, have failed to raise the issue of Dr Erdmann in court, even though Granville has repeatedly asked them to do so. He does not have a lot of faith in his lawyers anymore and is therefore looking for better legal representation, perhaps a pro bono lawyer or even law students who might be interested in doing some research on this case.
 

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