AUSTIN, Texas — Joe Bryan, the Clifton man who was convicted of the 1985 murder of his wife, has lost his appeal for a new trial.
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals denied Bryan's application for writ of habeus corpus in a ruling issued Jan. 15, without any further explanation.
A writ of habeus corpus asks a court to overturn a conviction because of a state or federal constitutional violation.
Bryan was found guilty in 1986 of killing his wife Mickey. He was sentenced to 99 years in prison but when the trial was reversed, Bryan was found guilty again in 1989 and he’s been in prison ever since.
Mickey, who was a 4th-grade teacher at Clifton Elementary, was found dead in their Clifton home on Oct. 15, 1985. Bryan, who was the principal at Clifton High School, has always maintained he was at a principal's convention in Austin at the time of his wife's death.
Bryan and his family say he is innocent despite the possibility that a confession could have meant earlier parole.
Bryan's defense team got his case in front of U.S. District Judge Doug Shaver in August 2018.
RELATED: 30 Years Later: Convicted killer Joe Bryan's attorneys present evidence hoping for new trial
Bryan's attorney Jessi Freud called into question evidence used to convict him, specifically pointing to a blood-covered flashlight found in Bryan's car.
During a hearing in September 2018, Brent Watson, a DNA supervisor for the Waco Department of Public Safety crime lab, said the state could not determine conclusively that Mickey Bryan's blood and DNA were on the flashlight.
But in December 2018, Shaver approved and adopted the recommendation by Bosque County District Attorney Adam Sibley to deny Bryan a new trial.
The state parole board also denied Bryan's request for parole on April 4, 2019. He will be up for parole again this April.
He is being held at the Stiles prison unit in Beaumont, according to Freud.
As for what's next, Freud told 6 News they will be pursuing relief in federal court.
Popular on KCENTV.COM
