“We, along with Mr. Inman and his family, were extremely pleased to receive the final ruling from the court,” he said. “We hope that the court order will finally put an end to this matter and that Mr. Inman will be reunited with his family as soon as possible.”
A attorney general spokeswoman who unsuccessfully defended Inman’s conviction said the office had no comment.
Inman’s case, taped on Season 4 of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Breakdown Podcast, is noteworthy. With no physical evidence linking him to the crime, he was convicted primarily on the testimony of four key witnesses, three of whom have since retracted their testimony.
During a June court hearing, Graham signed an order that essentially said she believed Hercules Brown – not Inman – was the actual killer. (Hercules Brown is not related to Donna Brown.)
Prior to Inman’s trial, his lawyers attempted to provide testimony alleging that Hercules Brown told them he had committed the murder. But the judge refused.
Brown and another man would kill two people in an armed robbery of Bennett’s Grocery in Adel months after Donna Brown was murdered. Hercules Brown later pleaded guilty to these murders and is serving life without parole.
A decade after Inman’s trial, the Georgia Innocence Project was allowed to conduct DNA testing on a makeshift mask found in Donna Brown’s car after the murder. The GBI crime lab found a match: Hercules Brown.
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The mask was found in the car of murder victim Donna Brown. GBI crime lab tests revealed that the DNA found on the mask belonged to Hercules Brown, who was not charged in the case. (AJC file photo)
“Prosecutors brought the self-made mask found in Donna Brown’s car as evidence and suggested at trial that the mask was worn by her killer,” wrote Graham in her 28-page order. “Prosecutors argued that they were investigating the case thoroughly, walking ‘every street’ and that all roads led back to Mr. Inman as a murderer.”
What the prosecution did not pass on to Inman’s trial attorneys was the information that Hercules Brown was arrested in September 2000 for illegally possessing weapons and cracked cocaine in front of an aristocratic supermarket. In Brown’s car, police found a homemade mask similar to the one Inman wore when Donna Brown was murdered.
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Hercules Brown serving a life sentence without parole for a double homicide. (Georgia correctional facility)
If Inman’s attorneys had been exposed to information about the mask, “it would have been independent, reliable, and admissible evidence linking Hercules Brown to the murder, confirming the defense attorney’s theory of confusion,” wrote Graham.
In addition, the DNA found on the mask recovered from Donna Brown’s car “further confirms Hercules Brown’s guilt and strongly supports Mr. Inman’s claims of innocence.” said Graham.
Separately, Graham found that Inman’s trial attorney was abandoned because she learned that the self-made mask had been found by police during Hercules Brown’s arrest in September 2000, and that information was not disclosed to either Inman or his appellate attorney.
“This court recognizes that the miscarriage of justice exception is subject to exceptional circumstances and should be used sparingly,” wrote Graham. “But this is an extraordinary case.”
DiscoverBill Rankin is the AJC’s chief legal reporter
