James Grigson

One of the most notable, at least after the fact, appearances of Grigson in court occurred in the 1977 case of Randall Dale Adams, who was accused of murdering police officer Robert W. Wood. Adams was found guilty and, on the basis of Grigson's testimony, was given the death penalty. Grigson told the jury that Adams would be an ongoing menace if kept alive.[9][10]

In 1980, Adams' death sentence was commuted to life in prison by Texas Governor Bill Clements,[11] and in 1989, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals overturned Adams' conviction on the grounds of malfeasance by the prosecutor and inconsistencies in the testimony of a key witness.[12][13] The prosecution declined to go to a new trial, and Adams was eventually freed after having spent approximately 12 years in prison.[14]

The case was profiled in the 1988 documentary film The Thin Blue Line.[15]

In 1978, Kerry Max Cook was found guilty of capital murder and sentenced to death following Grigson's testimony in which he stated that Cook was a severe sociopath and a very serious threat to others.[16] In 1997, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals overturned Cook's conviction on the grounds of prosecutorial and police misconduct, and he was freed after agreeing to plead no contest to a time-served sentence.[17]

In 1991, Cameron Todd Willingham was accused of the capital murder of his three children due to arson. Grigson testified that Willingham was an incurable sociopath despite having never met him.[18] His testimony helped prosecutors secure the death penalty, but Willingham's guilt has since been called into question due to modern fire science[19][20] and a witness recantation.[21] Willingham was executed in 2004 at the age of 36 years old.[22][23]

In 1998, Jeffery Lee Wood was tried for capital murder under the Texas law of parties. Based on a hypothetical question and without having evaluated Wood, Grigson testified that Wood posed a future threat to society, which subsequently resulted in a death sentence for Wood.[24]

At the time of Grigson's testimony, he had been expelled from the American Psychiatric Association and the Texas Society of Psychiatric Physicians for ethical violations in his court testimonies. Wood had no prior felonies or history of violent crime prior to his arrest, and evidence excluded in court supports his claim that he was acting under duress during the robbery.[25] As of 2023, Wood remains on death row with no scheduled date of execution.[26]

Executed defendants whose cases Grigson testified in include Aaron Lee Fuller, Bernard Eugene Amos, David Lee Holland, David Wayne Stoker, Gayland Charles Bradford, Gerald Wayne Tigner, Gregory Lynn Summers, Hai Hai Vuong, Jack Wade Clark, James Edward Clayton, John Glenn Moody, John Russell Thompson, John Thomas Satterwhite, Mack Oran Hill, Michael Dewayne Johnson, Noble Mays Jr., Patrick Fitzgerald Rogers, Samuel Christopher Hawkins, Thomas Andy Barefoot, William Hamilton Little, and many more.[27]