NATION IN BRIEF : TEXAS : Inmate Released in Racism-Tainted Case

Death Row inmate Clarence Brandley was freed on bond from the Ellis 1 Unit prison in Huntsville, Tex., one month after an appeals court threw out his conviction on charges of raping and killing a teen-ager in a case tainted by racism. Brandley’s release came after a state judge in Conroe, Tex., set his bond at $75,000 and one month after the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals threw out Brandley’s capital murder conviction. Brandley’s attorneys had offered evidence that police and Montgomery County prosecutors had set out to prove that Brandley, the only black janitor at Conroe High School was guilty rather than seeking the young white woman’s killer.