N.C. man freed after 14 years without a trial
Charlotte Observer
EMILY S. ACHENBAUM
Tue, Oct. 09, 2007
DURHAM --Floyd Brown, held for 14 years on murder and robbery charges, never got a trial.
As of Monday, he does not need one.
Durham County Superior Court Judge Orlando Hudson Jr. changed Brown's life with a single sentence, delivered at the end of a three-hour hearing.
"These charges are to be dismissed," Hudson said.
He ordered Brown, with an IQ of 50, freed from Dorothea Dix state mental hospital, where he has been held since 1993.
When Hudson said nothing more, Brown's family and supporters gasped, some laughing in disbelief. Brown's attorneys, Mike Klinkosum and Kelley DeAngelus, hugged Brown, tears running down their faces.
As Frances Staton, Brown's sister, dug through her purse for change -- among Brown's first comments was a request for a snack -- she, too, cried, recounting how for years, no one seemed to care that her brother was the victim of injustice.
Brown, 43, is from the Anson County town of Wadesboro, about 55 miles southeast of Charlotte. He has suffered from mental retardation since childhood.
Despite detectives later jailed for corruption, a likely falsified confession, and lost physical evidence, Brown's prosecutor refused to drop the charges.
Two judges in Anson County supported District Attorney Michael Parker.
"They acted like his life doesn't matter," Staton said. "Like he's not a human being."
Parker said after the hearing he believes Brown remains a danger.
In response to a question from the Observer, Parker added:
"I'm not reopening this murder investigation. I'll have to talk to the sheriff."
`This has got to stop'
Monday's hearing had been called at the request of Brown's attorneys, who argued that his detention violated his constitutional rights.The attorneys chose to file their request in Durham County, as allowed by law. That meant Brown's case was reviewed by a judge outside Anson for the first time.
Hudson made his ruling shortly after a lunch break, but not before commenting on earlier decisions made in the case.
"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."
Hudson said he couldn't believe Brown could be left in the hospital for the rest of his life because he was not competent to stand trial and the prosecutor wouldn't free him.
"This has got to stop," he said.
Parker sat silently in the audience, watching.
Officers paid Brown visit
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."
Monday, the attorneys played a tape of an interview last week between Brown and a doctor.
Moira Artigues asked Brown to spell dog.
"Dog is D-O-G. Cat is C-A-T," Brown said.
Artigues asked Brown if he knew how to spell "milk" or "pot." He didn't answer.
"Hat? How do you spell hat?" Artigues asked.
"R-O-C-K-F-I-X-S-C-A-P-I-T-A-M," Brown said.
Two of the detectives who investigated the Lynch slaying later served federal prison time for accepting bribes from people they knew to be guilty in exchange for not filing charges. SBI agent Isley remains with the bureau, and has not returned calls for comment.
In August, after months of Observer stories investigating the case, the N.C. Department of Justice said it was reviewing allegations of wrongdoing.
`I figured it was time'
Brown walked out of the Durham County Courthouse with the bouncy gait he used walking the halls of Dorothea Dix.
"I doin' alright," he said, and giggled. Asked if he thought he'd ever be freed, he said, "I figured it was time sooner or later."
He'll be staying at the hospital for a few more days. His attorneys and family are finding him an adult care home near Wadesboro. There, he'll have the care and supervision he needs, family say, but also the freedom to come and go with loved ones.
Backed by Brown's beaming and red-eyed family, Klinkosum, voice trembling, called Hudson "a jurist of unwavering courage."
But he said there are no laws to keep what happened to Brown from happening to someone else.
"That's something for the General Assembly to take up," Klinkosum said.
"There are likely more Floyd Browns out there."
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