Keith Brown served four years in North Carolina prison for a sexual assault he didn't commit before he was exonerated through DNA testing.
A 32-year-old woman and her 9-year-old daughter were sexually assaulted in Wilson, North Carolina, in the early-morning hours of April 22, 1991. Police officers interrogated Brown and said that he confessed to committing the crime. He pled guilty and was sentenced to 35 years in prison.
Brown had served four years when biological samples collected from the crime scene in the incident were sent to Florida along with evidence from unsolved North Carolina cases. It is unclear why evidence from Brown's case was sent along with cold case evidence. The samples from Brown's case were tested and the DNA results matched a Florida inmate, proving that Brown could not have been the perpetrator.
Keith Brown was released from prison on July 7, 1997 and received a pardon of innocence from North Carolina governor James B. Hunt on July 9, 1999. He sought compensation from the North Carolina Industrial Commission, but he was denied.
The Florida inmate, Samuel Mosley, would eventually be convicted of committing the 1991 assaults.
Summary courtesy of the Innocence Project, http://www.innocenceproject.org/. Reproduced with permission.
Posting Date: 08-29-2011
Last Update Date: 05-15-2021
