Law Alumni, Officials to Gather For Groundbreaking Ceremony

OXFORD, Miss. – Hundreds of University of Mississippi alumni, faculty, students and friends will gather at the site of the new law building for a groundbreaking ceremony on March 29.

The 11:30 a.m. ceremony is open to media representatives and will feature comments from Law Dean Samuel M. Davis, Chancellor Robert Khayat and campaign steering committee chairman Bill Goodman. Lunch will be served to law alumni following the event in the Coliseum parking lot. The groundbreaking ceremony will be held at the former site of the Village apartments across from the Tad Smith Coliseum on campus.

The ceremony will be held in conjunction with Law Alumni Weekend. To register for Law Alumni Weekend, contact Emily Briggs at 662-915-7375 or emily@olemiss.edu. For more information on the groundbreaking, contact communications specialist Jennifer Farish at 662-915-5079 or jpfarish@olemiss.edu.

Two Mississippi Prisoners to be Exonerated After More Than a Decade in Prison

The Mississippi Innocence Project at the University of Mississippi School of Law announced Friday the expected exoneration of two men convicted of capital murder and the arrest last week of the man who is thought to be guilty of the crimes.

The local organization worked in conjunction with Jackson attorney Robert B. McDuff and the Innocence Project in New York on the cases of Kennedy Brewer and Levon Brooks.

As a result of post-conviction DNA testing, the state has announced that it will clear Brewer at a hearing this Friday in Noxubee County. The Mississippi Innocence Project filed pleadings on behalf of Brooks so that he too is expected to be released and cleared. When he is cleared this week, Brewer will become the first prisoner in Mississippi to be exonerated on the basis of such testing.

Brewer was convicted in 1995 in Lowndes County for the capital murder and rape of a 3-year-old girl and was sentenced to death. Brooks also was convicted of capital murder and rape of a different 3-year-old during his 1992 trial. Both men maintained their innocence, said Tucker Carrington, director of the Mississippi Innocence Project.

Last week, additional testing was conducted by defense attorneys, and the test showed the evidence matched the DNA of an individual who had been a suspect early in the investigation. Defense lawyers, working in conjunction with the state Attorney General's Office, moved quickly to arrest suspect Albert Johnson who still lived in the community where the two girls were abducted and killed. Carrington said Johnson subsequently confessed to both crimes, thereby clearing Brooks and Brewer.

Carrington said Mississippi Innocence Project students, particularly third-year law student McCann LeFeve of Gulfport and second-year law student Krystal Walker of Louisville, are playing an important role in the developments.

"The two of them worked feverishly once news of the DNA match and arrest arose in the last week, and helped research and prepare the writ that was filed in the Mississippi Supreme Court this past Friday," he said.

Carrington added that the main position of the Mississippi Innocence Project remains unchanged.

"Mississippi needs meaningful criminal justice reform," he said. "Our office endeavors to be a leader – whether it is representing clients with viable claims of innocence or legislative initiatives. The facts of the Brewer and Brooks cases speak for themselves. They are emblematic of sloppy law enforcement, questionable forensic science and the perils of the state's lack of DNA preservation and testing legislation."

For more information on the Mississippi Innocence Project, contact Tucker Carrington at 662-915-5206. For more information on the case of Kennedy Brewer, contact Robert B. McDuff at 601-969-0802. For more information on the case of Levon Brooks, contact either Carrington or McDuff.