A Burleson county judge set bail at $1 million for former death row inmate Anthony Graves on her own initiative without a request from the prosecution, according to a request for a bail reduction hearing filed Thursday by Graves' attorneys.

State District Court Judge Reva Towslee-Corbett set the bail Wednesday without a bond hearing or giving notification to Graves' attorneys.

Two days earlier, she granted a request by the district attorney for Burleson and Washington counties to recuse the office, the filing says.

"Since there was no effort to find a replacement prosecutor, this meant that as of Dec. 18, 2006, no one was representing the state," the document says.

The request says that Graves, who the Texas Innocence Network and the Texas Innocence Project say is innocent, is being unfairly treated by the judge who is gagging his attorneys on the one hand and "setting an outrageous bond on the other."

"Setting the bond in this amount constitutes a deliberate effort to make it appear as if he is guilty of the crime he is charged with, thus depriving him of the right to a fair trial," according to the request.

Towslee-Corbett set bail for Graves a day after the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the authority of U.S. District Judge Samuel Kent to set Graves' bail at $50,000, requiring a $5,000 cash payment.

The appeals court said the federal court acted because prosecutors had failed to retry Graves within 120 days and had failed to seek a bond hearing, but that an order by a state judge would supplant the federal bail order.

The 5th Circuit Court overturned Graves' conviction earlier this year in a scathing opinion that accused the prosecution of withholding key statements that could have influenced the outcome of the trial and of allowing a prosecution witness to lie while testifying during the 1994 trial.

Graves was convicted of the 1992 slayings of a grandmother and five children in Somerville. The house was then set on fire.

Robert Carter, who confessed to the slayings, said moments before his execution in 2000 that he had lied while testifying against Graves and that Graves is innocent.

harvey.rice@chron.com