Justice Delayed

Floyd Brown is a free man. After spending 14 years at Dorothea Dix without a trial for a crime he likely did not commit, Floyd Brown walked out of court a free man. Actually, he temporarily returned to Dix while arrangements are made for him at a group home, a task made more difficult as Anson County DA, Michael D. Parker makes the rounds smearing Brown as a violent man - a claim his doctors at Dix deny.

What an ass hat. That's mild when you take into consideration the actions of investigators and the original district attorney. Mark Kleinschmidt gave a good summary at his place.

Floyd Brown faces first-degree murder charges for the 1993 killing of Katherine Lynch. Because of his mental retardation, Floyd (who spells his own name F-l-o-d B-o-n-w) has never been competent enough to stand trial and has been held in Dorothea Dix for more than 14 years. Until just recently, following the ban on executions of the mentally retarded, Brown was facing the death penalty for this crime.

The case was originally investigated by two sheriff's deputies who have since been driven from their law enforcement careers for shaking down suspects and threatening to charge suspects for crimes the officers knew they didn't commit. The only evidence against Brown is a signed "confession" that conflicts with the physical evidence and is undoubtedly beyond Brown's ability to have produced.

Here's even more detail from the CharO.

In July 1993, Brown was living with his mother and working at a vocational center for people with disabilities when someone beat 80-year-old Katherine Lynch with her walking stick, fracturing her skull and dragging her body through her house.

Anson County detectives and State Bureau of Investigation agent Mark Isley had few leads.

But a tipster who did not witness the crime later gave a description -- which Brown does not match -- of a possible culprit.

One night, records show, three officers visited Brown at his house. Records don't say what happened during that meeting, but Brown's family said Brown told them the detectives had told him to touch a stick.

The next morning, the detectives charged Brown with murder. Isley, the SBI agent, said he had a two-page verbatim confession, the only piece of evidence linking Brown to the crime. Several of Brown's doctors and teachers would testify that the confession had words Brown doesn't know -- like "heartbeat."

The Observer has been all over this story and it's probably due to their investigative work that this case was reviewed, though I'm sure many, many people have been working behind the scenes seeking justice for Floyd Brown.

If you're thinking the criminal justice system in Anson County is a bit like a cess pool, you're not alone. According to the Observer article, the judge in Durham had this to say yesterday:

"There's some things that go on in Anson County, but I can't do anything about it," he said. "I know there's pressure to decide a certain way."

Heh. They need to feel some pressure and the Anson County criminal justice system needs a glaring bright spotlight shining on it until they decide that justice is more important then their own little power trips. Power trips that not only delayed justice for Floyd Brown, but denied justice to the family of Katherine Lynch. From what I've read, investigators never looked for the real killer.