Ahead of Election Day, Gov. Greg Abbott released a campaign ad that accuses Travis County District Attorney José Garza of releasing a "confessed killer." The ad highlights the 1991 murder of Anita Byington, 21, in East Austin. Allen Andre Causey was convicted of the murder in 1992.
Last year, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals overturned that conviction. Five of the court's nine judges signed the ruling, citing DNA that implicates an alternate suspect, witness testimony that contradicts Causey's confession, and allegations of police misconduct. The ad does not mention the overturned conviction or the possibility that someone else committed the crime. Instead, Garza's office dismissed the murder charge, and the ad mentions that dismissal.
Mike Ware, executive director of the Innocence Project of Texas, said the ad is misleading. "I just don't understand the reasoning of why it's 'tough on crime' to convict innocent people," Ware said. Abbott's campaign has used the case in ads and social media since at least March, citing it as a reason to create a statewide prosecutor's office. KUT said it reached out to Abbott's campaign and has not heard back.