Lawyer hired for ex-prosecutor says client acted 'within bounds of the law' in Alfred Brown case

New evidence has come to light in the case of Alfred Dewayne Brown, left, with defense lawyer Robert Morrow at trial in 2005. New evidence has come to light in the case of Alfred Dewayne Brown, left, with defense lawyer Robert Morrow at trial in 2005. Photo: Jessica Kourkounis, Contract Photo: Jessica Kourkounis, Contract Image 1 of / 8 Caption Close Lawyer hired for ex-prosecutor says client acted 'within bounds of the law' in Alfred Brown case 1 / 8 Back to Gallery

The lawyer hired to represent former assistant district attorney Dan Rizzo says his client acted "within the bounds of the law" in the controversial case that saw a man wrongfully sent to death row.

"Dan Rizzo tried a lot of cases here in Harris County for a good number of years and he always enjoyed a very good reputation as an honest and ethical prosecutor so it hurts him to have his entire career characterized by this case, in this fashion," said criminal defense attorney Chris Tritico, who is representing the retired lawyer. "It's his hope that when this process is over everyone will see that he did everything that he could within the bounds of the law and ethically."

The career prosecutor has come under fire in recent weeks as defense lawyers lobbed accusations of perjury and called for attempted murder charges following the release of a recently uncovered email showing that Rizzo failed to disclose evidence that would have confirmed an alibi for Alfred Dewayne Brown.

The 36-year-old spent roughly a decade on death row protesting his innocence before that evidence - landline phone records - turned up in a detective's garage in 2013. An appeals court overturned his sentence and he was released two years later.

READ MORE: Former prosecutor withheld key email in death row case

Initially, officials said the failure to turn over records was "inadvertent." But the bombshell email release earlier this month showed that investigator Breck McDaniel told Rizzo about the records back in 2003, months before Brown was sentenced to death. It's still not clear whether Rizzo read the message, though the district attorney's office has confirmed he did not reply to it.

After uncovering the email in the course of discovery for a lawsuit, District Attorney Kim Ogg lodged a formal complaint with the state bar. That action prompted Rizzo to hire a lawyer.

"It would be silly not to," Tritico said. "For something this serious Dan has every right to be represented."

For now, though, Tritico and his client are in a holding pattern, waiting to see whether the bar will take up the complaint and possibly elevate it to a grievance.

Tritico dismissed the possibility of criminal charges as "not likely."

"Whatever could have been investigated, the statute of limitations has expired on," Tritico said. "This idea floating around for attempted murder investigation is, in my view, virtually impossible to make and I don't see anyone legitimately investigating that."

Tritico declined to clarify whether Rizzo read the email in question.

"That's not an issue that I'm at liberty to discuss today," he said. He also wouldn't comment on whether, as some defense lawyers have argued, Rizzo may have committed perjury.

Although the email release sparked calls for a broader investigation into Rizzo's handling of other cases, Tritico panned the idea as unnecessary.

READ MORE: Defense lawyers seek investigation to consider possible attempted murder charge for ex-prosecutor

"I don't know that there's anyone looking at any of his other cases and I don't know why they would," he said.

Brown was convicted in October 2005 in the slaying of Houston Police Officer Charles L. Clark and store clerk Alfredia Jones during a robbery at a check-cashing store in southeast Houston.

Two others were convicted in the case, and one of them - Elijah Dwayne Joubert - was sent to death row for Jones' slaying.

Brown always said that a landline call he made from his girlfriend's house around the time of the killings would show he wasn't there, but officials said they had no record of the call. In 2008 Rizzo even signed a sworn affidavit saying he did not withhold any phone records that could have been used in Brown's defense.

But during the appeals process in 2013, McDaniel found the records in his garage.

Brown was released from prison in 2015 and has since fought for compensation for the years he spent on death row. But the state rejected his request for money based on the grounds that prosecutors never declared him "actually innocent."

In response, Brown's attorneys filed suit against the county, city, district attorney and Houston police seeking compensation.

That civil case is still ongoing.