Charlotte Observer Shining a Brighter Light on Parker

Yesterday I said that I didn't think the Charlotte Observer was finished with D.A. Michael Parker. This morning they proved me right.

What Anson County District Attorney Michael Parker is trying to do to Floyd Brown goes beyond unreasonable. It's unconscionable.

A judge on Monday dismissed charges against Mr. Brown, who had spent 14 years locked up in a mental hospital for a murder charge he was never tried on, based on a confession experts say he couldn't have made. But now he has no suitable place to go. After a visit from the Anson County DA, a group home reneged on an agreement made months ago to take Mr. Brown when he was released.

Go CharO!

In my research yesterday I also found an excellent article from July in the Denver Post. You can find that here. Susan Greene's research is more detailed than I found locally. Here's a small portion on the confession Floyd Brown supposedly gave an SBI agent.

What prompted sheriff's deputies to lock Brown up - and what keeps him locked up 14 years later - is a confession that is the only evidence tying him to the killing.

Brown denies having given the statement.

It begins like this: "On Friday, July 19 (sic), 1993, my mama woke me up at 6 a.m., in the morning."

The statement says Lynch, the victim, referred to Brown as her "favorite cousin" as she welcomed him into her home. Brown, his family and Lynch's all say they're not related and didn't know each other.

The statement says that, before beating Lynch, Brown watched an "Andy Griffin" (sic) rerun with her in her living room. Crime-scene photos show no TV in Lynch's living room.

The statement says Brown admitted to hitting Lynch on her right arm. In two interviews with The Post, he could not tell right from left.

The statement says Brown checked Lynch's heart rate and breathing after the attack. Those are skills that Brown - who still struggles with basic grooming - doesn't have, doctors say.

"I'm sorry for hitting her. I told you I made a mistake," the confession ends.
The statement shows a mastery of abstract concepts - such as a.m. and p.m. - that Brown doesn't grasp. Despite 14 years of therapy and training while incarcerated, in fact, he still can't say what year it is.

It mentions him noticing Lynch's neighbor drive by in a "blue Chevrolet" and describes his ride to his vocational center in "Hamlet, North Carolina," the morning of the murder. While interviewed for this story, Brown couldn't read or identify car brands and was stumped when asked the state where he lives.

"That's not his language. That's not Mr. Brown," said forensic psychiatrist Robert Rollins. "It's too educated, too sophisticated, too relevant, too cohesive for Mr. Brown."

If you think that is shocking, go read the article in The Denver Post and pay special attention to the section about the missing evidence. Lovely. Now, it looks like we have an incompetent sheriff in the mix.