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DAVID JUNIOR BROWN IN THE NEWS :
Tuesday, November 16, 1999
- 08:46 PM Last 7 Days - David
Junior Brown
Brown was sentenced to die
for the 1980 stabbingdeaths of Shelly Diane Chalflinch, 26, and her 9-year-old
daughter, Christina. Death penalty opponents have applied extra
energy because they say evidence shows Brown might be innocent.
Brown Waits for Execution While Governor Considers Clemency
RALEIGH (AP) -- David Junior Brown sat on North
Carolina's death row Tuesday, awaiting execution later
this week, while his friends and enemies met Gov. Jim
Hunt to argue over clemency and whether Brown might
be innocent.
Brown, 51, was sentenced to die for the 1980 stabbing
deaths of Shelly Diane Chalflinch, 26, and her
9-year-old daughter, Christina, in their employee's
apartment at Pinehurst Hotel. The victims were
stabbed more than 100 times and Brown's silver signet
ring was discovered under Ms. Chalflinch's liver.
Hunt met with prosecutors and the victims' relatives
first, then saw lawyers representing Brown and
religious leaders opposed to the execution. Those
meetings are routine during executions.
Death penalty opponents have applied extra energy
because they say evidence shows Brown might be
innocent. The protesters have waved signs at Hunt,
paraded in front of the executive mansion and held
rallies and news conferences. His lawyers scheduled a
rare prison news conference for Brown on Wednesday
afternoon.
``It's because this is a question of innocence,'' said
Chris Fitzsimon, a death penalty opponent and
executive director of the Common Sense Foundation.
``This is the first case since the death penalty has been
reinstated that there is a question that the wrong man
may be about to be executed.''
The U.S. Supreme Court has considered Brown's case
three times, and it was reviewed by lower federal
courts and a state court. Before the meetings with the
governor Wednesday, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals denied a request for a stay of execution and a
new hearing.
``There is no new evidence,'' said the victim's brother,
Larry Frye of Norfolk, Va. ``There is no doubt in my
mind whatsoever David Junior Brown did this murder
and that it was premeditated.''
Evidence against Brown, who has changed his name
to Dawud Abdullah Muhamed, includes the ring, a
bloody palm print found on a wall in the Chalflinch
apartment and a knife blade like the one Brown owned.
Ms. Chalflinch's father, Wes Frye, who still works at the
hotel, said he has no doubt about Brown's guilt
because he had harassed his daughter.
``David was infatuated with her,'' Frye said after
meeting with Hunt. ``I think he went there to the
apartment that night to have his way and it backfired on
him.''
The infatuation story was new to Brown's supporters,
who have combed the court records.
Defense lawyers say another person killed Ms.
Chalflinch and her daughter and point to evidence that
someone else was in the apartment. They said there
was no concrete proof that Brown was in the vicinity at
the time of the murders. In addition, they said there's
evidence that Ms. Chalflinch was seen alive at a time
when police say she was dead. Lawyers also said
Brown was too intoxicated to be capable of the killings.
``We believe this is the first time in North Carolina
history when a person is this close to execution where
a jury hasn't heard evidence of innocence,'' said one of
his attorneys, Henderson Hill of Charlotte.
``This is a one-time event as far we can tell. The
governor has the final opportunity for relief.''
By ESTES THOMPSON, Associated Press Writer
With tears in her eyes, his daughter spoke after the
execution. "My father was an innocent man," she said.
"He was punished for a crime he did not commit."
Brown was scheduled to die for stabbing Shelly
Chalflinch and her nine-year-old daughter over a
hundred times in 1980.
The victim's family was also given a chance to speak.
They said all the evidence pointed toward Brown,
including a ring belonging to Brown found in the victim's
body.
"Justice was served tonight," one relative said. "My
only regret is we cannot bring him back to life so we
can execute him again."
Brown had a lot of heavy hitters believing his pleas of
innocence, including former prosecutors and law
professors who studied his case.
But the one man who did not believe him, and who
could have spared his life, was Governor Hunt.
"I have given careful and deliberate consideration to all
of the facts in the case of David Junior Brown," Hunt
said late Thursday. "In almost two decades of appeals
and judicial review, the courts consistently have upheld
the verdict in this case."
"I, too, have throughly reviewed this case, and I find no
reason to grant clemency," Hunt said.
Brown was the fourth prisoner executed this year and
the first person put to death in North Carolina since the
death penalty was reinstated who has claimed his
innocence.
***
A prison guard wheeled a
gurney carrying David Junior Brown into the
death chamber at Central
Prison Friday at 1:51 a.m.
As the gurney was lifted
over a metal strip at the door into the chamber,
Brown glanced into the small,
darkened witness room and then closed his
eyes as the gurney was placed
in front of the old wooden chair used for
executions by gas.
Among those watching were
4 family members of the woman and daughter
he was convicted of killing
19 years ago, the former prosecutor who
sought his death, Brown's
daughter and her husband, Brown's 2 lawyers
and 5 reporters.
The clock on the wall in
the witness room ticked as the witnesses sat
nearly motionless. The only
light came from a single bulb on the back
wall of the death chamber,
a small room with 6 sides.
A beige curtain was pulled
behind the gurney. 3 intravenous saline
bags hung to Brown's right.
3 lines snaked through a slit in the
curtain.
3 executioners stepped in
behind the curtain awaiting Warden R.C.
Lees order to proceed. A
line went into each of Brown's arms. The 3rd
went into an empty IV bag.
None of the executioners would know which
one was administering the
lethal drug.
Brown was covered by a powder-blue
hospital sheet. His head was propped
on a pillow with a blue
pillowcase. He wore his glasses and a black
skullcap. He looked calm.
He began to say what seemed
to be a prayer, repeating something over and
over. The sound could not
penetrate the double-paned window separating
him from the 2 rows of witnesses.
His mouth opened a little wider, his
neck muscles straining a
little more each time he spoke.
For a second, the faint hum
of his chanting could be heard. He stopped.
Inside the witness room,
the clock ticked.
Brown opened his eyes for
a few seconds, looking up at the ceiling. He
closed them again and continued
to pray and chant. He never opened his
eyes again.
Brown was defiant to the
end, maintaining that he was innocent of the
stabbing deaths of 26-year-old
Shelly Diane Chalflinch and her 9-year-old
daughter, Christine, in
Pinehurst in 1980. In the moments before he was
rolled into the death chamber,
Brown made a final statement to Lee.
"O Allah, OAllah, condemn
and lay curse upon the killers of Dawud Abdullah
Muhammed. Cursed be the
people who did injustice to me and cursed be the
people who heard this and
were pleased with it."
Brown, who was 51, changed
his name in prison after his conversion to
Islam.
Lee entered the door at the
back of the small witness room at 2 a.m., the
scheduled time of execution.
He announced in a steady, calm voice that he
was going to check with
state Correction Secretary Theodis Black, who was
in Lee's office one floor
below. A special phone on Lee's desk was
connected to a small control
room behind the death chamber.
If there were no further
instructions, Lee said, he would order the
execution to proceed.
At 2:01 a.m., Brown was injected
with thiopental sodium to put him to
sleep, followed by Pavulon,
a strong muscle relaxer that causes the
breathing to stop.
For several minutes, Brown's
head swayed. He appeared to be singing,
defying the effect of the
1st drug. He stopped. He was still as he fell
asleep.
It was 2:07.
Browns breathing became labored.
His body convulsed. His head rose off
the pillow, rocking forward
several times as if he were choking. Then he
was still.
Brown's daughter, 24-year-old
Toswayia Mosley of Fayetteville, began to
cry. Sitting in the second
row, she leaned to the right, peering between
Larry Frye and Wes Frye
on the front row, relatives of the Chalflinches.
At 2:09, Brown gasped, his
muscles constricting. His body relaxed, and a
tear rolled down his left
cheek. His mouth gaped.
His breathing slowed. The clock ticked.
Mosley wept quietly. She
leaned forward, putting her head into her hands.
Her husband, Herbert, put
his arm around her.
Joel Morris, a former State
Bureau of Investigation agent, was seated on
the other side of Mosley.
He glanced at the clock. It was 2:12.
The muscles in Brown's neck
began to spasm, the motion rippling down into
his chest and stomach. It
was 2:13. Brown lay still, his mouth open.
Mosley asked one of the 2
guards in the witness room to take her and
her husband out. The room
was quiet again except for the ticking of the
clock.
Larry Frye of Norfolk, Va.,
the brother of Shelly Chalflinch, sat on the
front row, flanked by former
District Attorney Carroll Lowder and Frye's
father, Wes Frye of Aberdeen.
The Fryes and 2 other family members,
Johnny Frye and Jimmy Chalflinch,
stared straight ahead the entire time.
Around 2:16, Brown's heart stopped. His face turned blue.
A heart monitor, hidden from
view in another room, had to show a flat
line for 5 minutes before
he could be pronounced dead.
The witnesses sat quietly, watching Brown. The clock ticked.
Bruce Cunningham of Southern
Pines sat with his hands folded in his lap.
Next to him, Henderson Hill
of Charlotte, chewing on a toothpick, looked
down. They were Brown's
lawyers.
Jimmy Chalflinch of Carthage,
former brother-in-law of Shelly Chalflinch,
checked the clock at 2:18.
3 minutes later, Morris looked up at the
clock.
The door off the left side
of the chamber where Brown was brought in
opened at 2:23. Lee stepped
in and pulled a curtain over the window. The
lights came on in the witness
room.
Hill and Cunningham got up
and left the room abruptly. The others stayed
seated. No one spoke. Cunningham
looked tired, his eyes bloodshot, as he
got into the elevator outside
the room. Hill looked disgusted.
In the witness room, Larry
Frye put a hand on his father's shoulders and
then shook hands with Johnny
Frye and Jimmy Chalflinch.
At 2:25, Lee came back into
the witness room and announced that the
orders of the state for
the execution of David Junior Brown had been
carried out. Brown had been
pronounced dead at 2:21 a.m. The witnesses
left the room in silence.
*****************
When Toswayia Mosley wrapped
her arms around David Junior Brown on
Thursday, it was the first
time she had hugged her father in 19 years.
"It felt good yesterday to be able to hug him," Mosley said Friday.
Mosley is 24 years old. Until
Thursday, she had not been allowed
physical contact with Brown
during her prison visits.
12 hours after watching Brown
die by lethal injection, Mosley was
back home in Fayetteville.
There were no more thoughts of appeals or
hopes that her fathers life
would be spared.
All of that ended at 2:21
a.m. when Brown was put to death for the 1980
stabbing deaths of 26-year-old
Shelly Diane Chalflinch and her
9-year-old daughter, Christine,
in Pinehurst.
Brown and Chalflinch were
co-workers at the Pinehurst Hotel and lived in
the same employee apartment
building.
"I guess I knew it was coming,
but I had that hope that they couldn't do
it," Mosley said. "There
were too many things left unanswered. I didn't
think it would go that far."
But members of the victim's
family said the death penalty was the only
justice for Brown. Larry
Frye, Chalflinch's brother, said Brown got what
he deserved.
Chalflinch and her daughter
were found dead in their apartment. They
were stabbed more than 100
times.
"I am just sorry we cannot
bring him back to life so we can kill him
again," Frye said. "As far
as I am concerned, may David Junior Brown not
rest in peace for what he
did to my sister and niece 20 years ago."
Brown's lawyers alleged misconduct
by prosecutors kept him from getting
a fair trial. Brown maintained
his innocence to the end.
Frye said Brown had 19 years
and repeated appeals to try to prove his
innocence. He said dozens
of judges reviewed the case and found that the
evidence against Brown was
overwhelming.
"The only closure that I
have in this is watching David Junior Brown
die," Frye said. "20 years
ago, I had to look at my sister and niece
in a body bag. I don't think
he suffered. It was a humane way to die."
Brown's proclaimed innocence
and allegations of prosecutorial misconduct
sparked new debate about
capital punishment.
Gerda Stein of Citizens for
Justice said Brown's case made people think
about the possibility of
the state executing an innocent man.
"It made them really look
much more closely at the death penalty and see
some of the problems with
it," Stein said. "It can't be administered
properly and fairly."
She said the state can't
afford to make a mistake when someones life
is at stake.
Bruce Cunningham, one of
Brown's lawyers, said Brown wanted his death to
have some meaning. "I hope
it will."
Mosley said she believes
the death penalty is morally wrong and should be
abolished. She believes
the state killed the wrong person.
Brown spent the past 19 years
trying to shield his only child from the
media attention that surrounded
his case. Brown didn't want her
attending the trial or hearings
because he wanted to protect her, she
said.
All of that ended this week
as Brown's execution neared. Brown spent
Thursday with Mosley and
her family -- her husband, Herbert Mosley Jr.,
and her children, Joella
Ross, who is 7; Herbert Mosley III, who is 4;
and 4-month-old Akhira Mosley.
Even though Brown was in
Central Prison, he managed to have a
relationship with his daughter.
She has letters he wrote her from prison.
They were able to share
an occasional telephone call. She was 12 years
old the first time she visited
him in prison.
Brown continued his protective
habits this week, declining to talk about
his daughter with reporters.
Mosley didn't tell her father until Thursday
that she planned to witness
his execution.
In the end though, Mosley
couldn't stand to watch. She left the witness
room before Brown was declared
dead.
"I wanted to see him last,
and I wanted him to see me," she said. "In
the end I had to leave because
it disgusted me."
(source: Fayetteville Observer-Times)
Call it murder B Y P A T R I C K O ' N E I L L
Alfred Rivera
spent 22 months on North Carolina's death row before
new evidence
proved his innocence. Last week, Rivera, from High
Point, joined
about 150 others for a march and rally in downtown
Raleigh in
support of a moratorium on executions.
Standing across
the street from the governor's mansion, Rivera told
the assembly
he believed many of the men he had lived with on death
row were innocent.
Specifically he mentioned David Junior Brown
(aka Dawud
Abdullah Muhammad), a man who was executed last
Nov. 20 in
Central Prison despite an international outpouring of pleas
to Gov. Jim
Hunt to commute Brown's sentence because of doubts
concerning
his guilt.
David Junior
Brown was "a man executed innocent," Rivera said. "I
knew this man.
I knew this man's heart. He was innocent. He didn't
have the chance
I had."
Chris Fitzsimon
of the Common Sense Foundation led the crowd in a
chant: "It's
all about class. It's all about race. Executions are a total
disgrace."
Fitzsimon noted that homicide is the official cause of death
listed on an
executed prisoner's death certificate. "It's time to stop
calling what
our state does 'executions.' It's time to stop calling it
capital punishment.
Folks, what we're doing is murder."
Wilmington author
Jim Megivern, a nationally recognized expert on
capital punishment,
said if one person were executed each day, it
would take
almost 10 years to execute the more than 3,600 people
on death rows
in the United States today. "We are engaged in a
systematic
massacre that has only just begun unless we stop it,"
Megivern said.
With three executions
scheduled in a four-week period, it's obvious
that the growing
support for a moratorium won't come soon enough
to save the
lives of Michael Sexton (Nov. 9), Marcus Carter (Nov.
22) and Russell
Tucker (Dec. 9). "We expect our General Assembly
to enact a
moratorium next year and begin to study the death penalty
in depth for
the first time," says Steve Dear, executive director of
People of Faith
Against the Death Penalty. "We must not execute
anyone before
that happens."
Hunt should commute death penalty
Unique case calls for mercy given
question of David Brown's guilt
Chris Fitzsimon
The State of North Carolina is set to kill a
man in Central Prison Jan. 22. Even if you
support the death penalty, you should read
this column.
The man scheduled to die may be innocent,
which makes this case unique.
No one has disputed the guilt of men
previously executed since North Carolina
reinstated the death penalty in the 1970s.
Gov. Jim Martin once commuted a death
sentence because he questioned the man's
guilt.
David Junior Brown was convicted of the
1980 murder of a 26-year old single mother
and her nine-year-old daughter in their
Pinehurst apartment. The murder was
unspeakably brutal.
Evidence against him appears strong. Brown's
ring and his bloody palm print were found at
the crime scene. Police discovered a trail of
blood leading to Brown's apartment.
A Moore County jury convicted him of the
crime after deliberating a little more than an
hour. They sentenced him to death after 83
minutes. Now Brown is scheduled to die. His
lawyers will ask Gov. Jim Hunt for clemency.
They will ask Hunt to spare David Junior
Brown's life because they believe he is
innocent of the crime. The facts, which the
jury never heard, bear them out.
Brown took his ring off at a party the Sunday
afternoon before the murders and never saw it
again. He was the disk jockey at the party and
always took his ring off before he played his
records.
There was no bloody palm print. Experts
testified that it was a partial palm print that
could have been left before the blood. Brown
was a friend of the victims and had moved
furniture in their apartment. The trail of blood
was actually tiny unidentifiable traces of blood
that could have been there for decades.
This case has more than just flaws in the case
presented against Brown.
There is overwhelming evidence that points to
his innocence. Police found none of the
victims' blood in Brown's apartment, yet they
argue that Brown committed the crime while
intoxicated.
An eyewitness saw the victims at a
convenience store during the time the
prosecution theorized the murders were being
committed, information withheld from Brown's
lawyers for 14 years.
Two other witnesses saw a man with long
blonde hair jump from the balcony of the
apartment during the time when the murders
could have occurred.
A long blonde hair was recovered at the crime
scene. The hair was later lost. Authorities did
not pursue the jumper or other suspects who
fit the description and who had relationships
with the victims. The prosecution refused to
allow Brown's attorneys to examine the crime
scene, an unprecedented decision.
Brown has sat on death row in Central Prison
for 18 years. Gov. Hunt has never commuted
a death sentence.
If Hunt believes in the death penalty out of
personal conviction and not political
considerations, then Brown's case cries out
for clemency.
Executing an innocent man would undermine
the case for capital punishment.
This case isn't about mercy or forgiveness or
compassion. It isn't about the death penalty or
politics. It's simply about justice and an
innocent man.
Fitzsimon is executive director of the Common
Sense Foundation.
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