Consistent with ABA Model Rule 3.8, the Texas Supreme Court adopted three new subsections to Rule 3.09 addressing a prosecutor’s post-conviction obligation to disclose “new and credible information creating a reasonable likelihood that a convicted defendant did not commit an offense for which the defendant was convicted.”  New subsections (f), (g), and (h) address the responsibilities that a prosecutor has to rectify a wrongful conviction.  

Specifically, pursuant to Rule 3.09(f)(1), if a prosecutor learns of new and credible exculpatory evidence post-conviction, and the conviction was obtained in that prosecutor’s jurisdiction, then the prosecutor is obligated to promptly disclose that information to four different groups of people - the defendant, the defendant’s counsel or the indigent defense appointing authority in the jurisdiction, the tribunal, and a statewide entity that examines and litigates claims of actual innocence.  If the defendant has counsel with respect to the matter at issue, notification…