Devonia Inman: proven not guilty by DNA evidence but will still likely die in prison

[Dusty Bake Activate]

Long ass story with a lot of important details I'm leaving out but...

-Cali dude with roots in a tiny town called Adel, GA. Has beef with a local cop. Cop implicates him in the robbery murder of a Taco Bell night manager, Donna Brown. People give false/coerced statements saying he did it. They recant and the authorities don't listen. No evidence at all linking him to murder.

-Some crazy dude named Hercules Brown who has a lot of people in the town shook goes on a string of murders...kills like 3 people brutally. Hercules Brown is doing time for two of those murders. He also worked at the same Taco Bell at night and two people who worked there told police that he asked them to go in on a robbery of the place with him. Police ignore them. Hercules Brown used to get out of pinches all the time cause his mom was a high-ranking worker in the Georgia Divison of Family and Children Services and they needed her to help solve child abuse cases. Whenever Hercules got in trouble she would go to the police and cuss them out on some "My son would never do that" shyt and them rednecks were shook 'cause she had power.

-The local cops and the GBI (Georgia Bureau of Investigations) who they referred the case to and the whole Georgia court system totally railroad Devonia on some Central Park 5 shyt...refuse to talk to witness that say Hercules went around talking about the murder, etc. The Judge rules guilty and the prosecutor wrote his ruling for him. Instead of exonerating Devonia, they change their story to Devonia and Hercules did the robbery murder together even though there's no evidence that they knew each other.

-In 2011, DNA from a makeshift mask Hercules left in the Donna Brown's car, which he stole matches him. THE GEORGIA SUPREME COURT STILL REFUSES TO GIVE DEVONIA A NEW TRIAL.

Here's a summary, but again it leaves out a lot. T

Revisiting the Taco Bell Killing

This was a multi-part podcast on The Intercept.

There is still some hope to get him free. Last week, a judge finally ruled that a challenge to his conviction could go forward. Doesn't seem like the state of GA is in much of a hurry though.

 

[Dusty Bake Activate]

Update on the Devonia Inman Case – Georgia Innocence Project

In so many post-conviction innocence cases the biggest hurdle we face comes from the State successfully arguing: “Innocence does not matter. You’re too late; you should have brought your claims earlier.” Too often, the criminal legal system denies justice in the interest of finality and maintaining the status quo. We are therefore thrilled to report that Devonia Inman has overcome that hurdle!

A superior court court judge in Chattooga County recently DENIED the State of Georgia’s motion to dismiss Devonia’s habeas corpus petition. The State had argued that Devonia’s claims were time-barred and procedurally defaulted. This win paves the way for Devonia to show that his convictions should be overturned based upon Brady violations, prosecutorial misconduct, ineffective assistance of counsel, and actual innocence. Devonia is represented in the habeas litigation by our friends Tom Reilly, Tiffany Bracewell, and Majda Muhic at Troutman Sanders. Devonia’s story of wrongful conviction is the subject of two podcasts: Breakdown, Season 4 from the Atlanta Journal Constitution and Murdervillefrom the Intercept.

In 2001, Devonia Inman was convicted and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the September 1998 armed robbery and murder of a Taco Bell manager in Adel, Georgia. There was no physical evidence linking Devonia to the crime, he had an alibi, and the only evidence against him at trial came from witnesses who recanted at or after trial and an incentivized eyewitness who received a $5,000 reward for her testimony — testimony that was directly disputed by another witness. Though there was considerable evidence that a man named Hercules Brown had actually committed the murder, Devonia’s trial judge would not allow Devonia to call witnesses who would testify that Hercules Brown confessed to killing the manager. The judge excluded the testimony after ruling that there was no independent evidence to corroborate the confessions.

Years after Devonia’s trial, that corroborating evidence was found. Georgia Innocence Project took on Devonia’s case and secured DNA testing on a homemade ski mask found underneath the seat in the victim car stolen during the robbery / murder. There was only one person’s DNA on the mask: Hercules Brown. (After the Taco Bell manager’s murder and before Devonia’s trial, police actually had found another homemade mask in Hercules Brown’s car following an attempted armed robbery, a fact prosecutors failed to share with Devonia Inman prior to trial. Hercules Brown is now serving life in prison without parole for murdering two more people roughly two years after the Taco Bell manager was killed. We have learned from many DNA exoneration cases that too often when police and prosecutors convict the wrong person, the actual perpetrator remains free to commit more crimes, as tragically appears to have happened here.)

Yet in 2014, Cook County Superior Court Judge Buster McConnell held the new DNA evidence implicating Hercules Brown — and corroborating Hercules Brown’s confessions — was not sufficient to entitle Devonia to a new trial. The Georgia Supreme Court then denied Devonia’s request to appeal Judge McConnell’s decision.

As a result, a jury deciding Devonia Inman’s fate would never hear about:

• the recanted testimony,
• or Hercules Brown’s confessions,
• or the ski mask with Hercules Brown’s DNA found under the driver’s seat of the Taco Bell manager’s stolen car,
• or that a similar homemade mask was subsequently found in Hercules Brown’s car following an attempted armed robbery.

Also as a result, a Devonia Inman came one huge step closer to dying in prison despite DNA and other evidence of his innocence.

Devonia now has a real opportunity to attain justice. The habeas court judge not only held that Devonia’s habeas claims can proceed on the merits. The judge also ordered additional discovery to help Devonia further develop his claims, including the right to take Hercules Brown’s deposition. Now Devonia will continue his fight to convince the courts that he wrongly convicted, his constitutional rights were violated, and his conviction should be overturned.

We’ll keep you posted on updates in this fascinating and tragic case. Here is an AJC news story on the recent development.

 

[Field Marshall Bradley]

Prosecutors are some of the worst humans alive

 

[Dusty Bake Activate]

Prosecutors are some of the worst humans alive

If you listen to the Intercept podcast on this, it sounds like everybody involved in this case is a piece of shyt...every local cop, GBI officer, prosecutor, and judge.

They reach out to them at various points throughout the series, and none of them give a shyt that an innocent man is in prison at all and they all abruptly end the conversations.

Listen to the Murderville Podcast

 

[Dusty Bake Activate]

Up.

 

[ThrobbingHood]

Prosecutors are some of the worst humans alive

They also run as Democratic candidates for the presidency.

 

[Dusty Bake Activate]

@Henry Broadnax I see you recently got unbushed unfortunately.

Before I put you back on ignore, would like to explain why you just 1 starred a thread about an innocent black man trying to get out of a life sentence and negged me with the following...

“Guyanese right? Your hot mother got raped by Indian fakkits with aids in a dark alley. I got dirt on doggy. You still at that Florida address?”

 

[Amestafuu (Emeritus)]

@Henry Broadnax I see you recently got unbushed unfortunately.

Before I put you back on ignore, would like to explain why you just 1 starred a thread about an innocent black man trying to get out of a life sentence and negged me with the following...

“Guyanese right? Your hot mother got raped by Indian fakkits with aids in a dark alley. I got dirt on doggy. You still at that Florida address?”

Ban that dude

 

[Hannibal Fox]

If you listen to the Intercept podcast on this, it sounds like everybody involved in this case is a piece of shyt...every local cop, GBI officer, prosecutor, and judge.

They reach out to them at various points throughout the series, and none of them give a shyt that an innocent man is in prison at all and they all abruptly end the conversations.

Listen to the Murderville Podcast

Been subbed to the intercept/murderville for a minute (interesting how they got their start still)

@Henry Broadnax I see you recently got unbushed unfortunately.

Before I put you back on ignore, would like to explain why you just 1 starred a thread about an innocent black man trying to get out of a life sentence and negged me with the following...

“Guyanese right? Your hot mother got raped by Indian fakkits with aids in a dark alley. I got dirt on doggy. You still at that Florida address?”

Lmao

exactly what is funny about that my g?

 

[TAYLONDO SAMSWORTHY]

It’s Georgia. I wouldn’t wish Georgia on my favorite enemy

 

[CodeBlaMeVi]

Florida may have its ways but it doesn’t operate entirely like other southern states.

 

[Dusty Bake Activate]

Cats turning a thread about trying to get an innocent black man rotting away in prison free into this bullshyt.

 

[Knowledge]

This is why I donate to the innocence project

 

[Knicksman20]

This is crazy but all too familiar

 

[Dusty Bake Activate]

Update: Devonia Inman’s Chance to Prove His Innocence

MORE THAN EIGHT YEARS after DNA evidence revealed that the state of Georgia sent the wrong man to prison for murder, Devonia Inman may finally have a chance to prove his innocence in court. In an order released on July 22, Lookout Mountain Judicial Circuit Chief Judge Kristina Cook Graham ruled that Inman’s challenge to his 2001 conviction could move forward. Graham gave permission for Inman’s attorneys to pursue his innocence claim and develop evidence to prove that Georgia prosecutors concealed critical information that could have shown from the start that Inman had nothing to do with the crime.

They ruled the challenge to his conviction can take place, but there’s no timetable and GA isn’t in a hurry to get it done. Public pressure is needed.