Man once on Miss. death row exonerated in 1992 murder case

A man once sentenced to death for the kidnapping and murder of a 3-year-old Mississippi girl was exonerated Friday, more than a week after another man allegedly confessed to the brutal crime.

As Kennedy Brewer's family and attorneys celebrated his freedom, the same judge granted a new trial for second man serving time for another child's murder in the same community. The judge freed that man, Levon Brooks, on
his own recognizance - again based on statements allegedly made by the same suspect.

Members of Kennedy Brewer's family and some attorneys wept in the crowded east Mississippi courtroom as Circuit Judge Lee Howard told Brewer he was a free man. A prosecutor apologized for the miscarriage of justice.

Asked about all that had happened to him since the child's death in Noxubee County in 1992, Brewer said, "I ain't worried about the past. I'm thinking about the future."

Brewer, now 36, is the first person to be exonerated in Mississippi as a result of post-conviction DNA testing, said the Innocence Project, which handled his case.

The exoneration comes after years of work by the Innocence Project, a New York-based attorneys' group that assists inmates who have been wrongfully convicted.

District Attorney Ben Creekmore filed a motion to vacate Brewer's conviction days after the arrest of Justin Albert Johnson, 51, who authorities said told police he raped and strangled 3-year-old Christine Jackson in 1992. The child's body was found in a creek.

On Friday, Creekmore apologized to Brewer.

Annie Brewer, Brewer's mother, sat in a wheelchair during the proceeding and called out "Thanks be to Jesus" as Howard ruled.

Attorneys said Johnson also allegedly confessed to the rape and murder of3-year-old Courtney Smith in 1990. The man convicted in her death, Brooks, now 48, was sentenced to life in prison.

It will be up to prosecutors whether to pursue Brooks' case further or move to exonerate him.

"I'm so excited," Brooks said after the ruling. "I really can't talk right now. I just want to be with my family right now."

Both the murdered children and those involved lived in Brooksville, a rural community about 10 miles east of Macon in east Mississippi.

Brewer was the boyfriend of Christine's mother, Gloria Jackson, when the child was killed. He had been baby-sitting the child the night she went missing. Brewer was convicted in 1995 and sentenced to death, but has
been free on bond since last year.

Johnson was linked to Christine's murder in 2001 when the Innocence Project sent a blood sample - taken soon after the 1992 killing - for DNA testing, said Innocence Project attorney Vanesa Potkin. His DNA
allegedly matched semen found on Christine's body.

The blood sample used in the test had been preserved at the Mississippi State Crime Laboratory for years.

The circumstances of Courtney's death were similar to Christine's. Courtney's mother, Sonya Smith, had dated Brooks in the past. The child was abducted from her grandmother's home. She was raped and killed and
her body was tossed in a nearby pond.

District Attorney Forrest Allgood, who prosecuted both of the cases, relied on forensic evidence to convict the men. Allgood later recused himself from the Brewer case when he learned that a staff member he
hired had previously represented Brewer on appeal.