More than two decades ago, Erma Wilson, then a certified nursing assistant in her mid-20s, was convicted of cocaine possession after police in Midland, Texas, claimed a bag of crack they said they had found on the ground belonged to her. To this day, Wilson denies that the crack was hers. But her felony conviction resulted in an eight-year suspended sentence and prevented her from becoming a registered nurse—her dream since childhood. And although Wilson continued to work as a certified nursing assistant and, after further training, as a medical assistant, her criminal record often made employers leery of hiring her, with the result that she sometimes struggled to support herself and her family.
Twenty years after that 2001 conviction imposed lifelong professional and financial penalties on Wilson, she learned that Ralph Petty, who worked for the Midland County District Attorney's Office as a prosecutor at the time of her trial, was simultaneously working as a law clerk for local judges—including John G. Hyde, the judge who had presided over her case. Although that blatant conflict of interest was clearly inconsistent with due process, three judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit unanimously but reluctantly ruled last week, Wilson cannot sue Petty, the district attorney who hired him, or Midland County under 42 USC 1983, the federal statute that authorizes people to seek damages from state and local officials who have violated their constitutional rights.
