Exoneree Graves finally picks up $1.45 million check

Graves appeared alone at the comptroller's office to receive the check and met privately with Comptroller Susan Combs, comptroller's spokesman R.J. DeSilva said.

"I want to thank Comptroller Combs for the leadership she showed in securing my claim," Graves said. "Though the initial denial of my claim was frustrating, I know the comptroller had no choice."

The comptroller's office's said Graves did not qualify under the state compensation law because the document freeing him did not contain the words "actual innocence." The Legislature passed a bill authorizing the payment.

Graves was freed in October after prosecutors proclaimed his innocence. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 2006 ordered a retrial after finding that prosecutors withheld evidence and elicited false testimony in Graves' 1994 trial. He awaited retrial for nearly six years in the Burleson County Jail in the deaths of a grandmother, her daughter and four grandchildren in Somerville.

harvey.rice@chron.com