In litigation with high-ranking Texas officials on one side, and a former death-row inmate on the other, a man who’s seeking state compensation for his wrongful conviction might have scored a slingshot:  former state Supreme Court Chief Justice Wallace Jefferson joining his pro-bono legal team.

Alfred Dewayne Brown, who was declared actually innocent earlier this year, after a 2005 wrongful conviction for murdering a Houston police officer, already had a high-powered legal team lead by Neal Manne, managing partner in Susman Godfrey in Houston.