GALVESTON — A special prosecutor appointed to retry former death-row inmate Anthony Graves gained notice for prosecuting a man executed despite information casting doubt on the evidence used to convict him.

Burleson County District Judge Reva Towslee-Corbett on Friday appointed former Navarro County Criminal District Attorney Patrick Batchelor.

Batchelor replaces interim special prosecutor Assistant Attorney General Julie Ann Stone, who was appointed Thursday and held the post for less than a day. The judge gave no reason for the change in her order.

Batchelor won the conviction of Cameron Todd Willingham, accused of setting a fire that killed his three children in 1991. After the Chicago Tribune reported that the arson evidence used to convict Willingham was faulty, the New York-based Innocence Project presented a report signed by five arson experts that examined the trial testimony and found it based on obsolete assumptions.

But after reviewing the information, Gov. Rick Perry declined to halt the 2004 execution.

Like Willingham, an innocence group says it has evidence showing that Graves is innocent.

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last year ordered a new trial for Graves after determining that prosecutors withheld evidence and elicited false testimony.

The case was assigned to Towslee-Corbett, who was forced to appoint a special prosecutor after Renee Mueller, district attorney for Burleson and Washington counties, recused her entire office.

Towslee-Corbett has set Graves' bail at $1 million, an amount that U.S. Magistrate Judge John Froeschner on Friday called "pretty excessive and pretty oppressive," but never-theless legal.

Towslee-Corbett also has imposed a gag order over the opposition of Graves' attorneys, who said in court documents that media coverage was the only way to ensure that he received a fair trial.

Graves was sentenced to death for the 1992 slaying of a grandmother and five children.

They were bludgeoned, stabbed and shot, then the house was torched to cover the crime.

Robert Carter, who was executed for the crime, said repeatedly that Graves was not involved.

harvey.rice@chron.com