Father Is Released From Death Row to Elated Family After 12 Years
Alfred Dwayne Brown was freed from prison on Monday — after 12 years — when his murder conviction was thrown out. (Photo: ABC)
For the last 12-and-a-half years, Alfred Dwayne Brown has only seen his family through glass. The Houston father was sent to death row in 2005 — when his daughter was just 2 years old — after he was convicted in the shooting death of a police officer and a clerk at a check-cashing store in 2003.
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But in November of 2014, after evidence was discovered supporting his alibi, the court threw out his conviction. Then, on Monday, District Attorney Devon Anderson dismissed the case for lack of evidence and granted Brown his freedom.
“We all cried,” Brown’s attorney Katherine Scardino tells Yahoo Parenting of the moment her client walked out of the Harris County Jail Monday evening and embraced his family. There to greet him was his daughter — who turns 15 in July — as well as his older sister, an uncle, and other friends and supporters. “His daughter was a baby when he went in and this was the first time he’d actually touched her, or hugged anybody for that matter, in more than 12 years,” Scardino says. “Everywhere he went in prison, they handcuffed him.”
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Photo: ABC
But Brown wasn’t bitter as he spoke to news crews on hand. “They did what they felt like was right, even though it was wrong,” Brown said of prosecutors, according to the Houston Chronicle. “I went there as an innocent man and I came out as an innocent man…It was a long wait but it was worth the wait.”
Asked to share his feelings, Brown simply replied, “I’m good,” ABC 13 reports. “My family [is] alright. If they’re alright, I’m alright.” The family seemed better than alright that evening, says Scardino. “His sister let out a big happy whoop,” she says. “They started hugging and Alfred grabbed for his daughter. They all stayed right next to him entire time he was outside.”
After speaking with reporters, the family went out to dinner together and then home to a local family member’s house. “There’s lots to catch up on,” notes the attorney. “Smartphones, even flat-screen TVs — there are so many things now that weren’t available 10, 12 years ago.”
Through all of Brown’s years in lockup, his family never wavered in their support. “They absolutely stood by him and that says a lot about what they know about his character,” says Scardino, who calls the dad a “gentle giant.”
As for his future plans, Scardino says Brown intends to relocate to live with his mother in a small town in Louisiana where he can fish, one of his favorite pastimes.
And what about the daughter that he finally has the chance to get to know one-on-one? “They’re just going to be together,” says Scardino. “A close family can be separated, but when they get together, it’s like they’ve never been apart. That’s the way they are.”
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