This story was produced in partnership with the Garrison Project, an independent, nonpartisan organization addressing the crisis of mass incarceration and policing.
In July, Clinton Young celebrated his 40th birthday. It’s a milestone when most people realize their youth is behind them and they are firmly an adult. But Young’s birthday was different, since he spent nearly all of his adult life on Texas’s death row.
Young has maintained his innocence in the 2001 murders of two men on opposite sides of Texas. The shocking misconduct that came to light in his case—a prosecutor from the Midland County District Attorney’s office that handled his case secretly served as a clerk to county judges who presided over his trial and appeals—led to his conviction being overturned by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals in 2021.
