DNA Says Right Man; Convicted Inmante Claimed he was Framed for Rape

By Bill Rankin, Atlanta Journal-Constitution , August 2, 2004

Joe Brown has maintained for years he was framed for rape during a house burglary in Valdosta

After hearing Brown's claims, a Lowndes County judge ordered in January that a new state law allowing for genetic testing in criminal appeals be used for the first time.

On Monday, the test results were made known: Brown did it.

"We know the truth now," said Aimee Maxwell, executive director of the Georgia Innocence Project, which represents Brown. "That's what this is really all about."

Lowndes County District Attorney David Miller said he had a high level of confidence his office had the right man.

"We proved our case beyond a reasonable doubt," Miller said. "Now the DNA tests have removed any doubt in anybody's mind, whether it was reasonable or not."

Miller noted that his office cooperated with the post-conviction testing in Brown's case and said he continues to support the new law, enacted last year.

On July 7, 1987, two men broke into a Valdosta woman's home shortly before 2 a.m. During the burglary, the woman was raped at knifepoint by a man she could not see and could only testify had the voice of a black male.

A month later, Philip Mierzejewski, a white male, was arrested in the truck that was stolen the night of the burglary. After police found Brown's wallet inside the truck and confronted Mierzejewski about the crime, Mierzejewski admitted to the break-in but said it was Brown, who is African-American, who raped the woman.

Brown was convicted at trial later that year and sentenced to life in prison.

The Georgia Innocence Project took Brown's case after it was learned that semen and blood evidence, which was not tested before Brown's trial, was still available. After Lowndes Superior Court Judge H. Arthur McLane approved the new test, samples were taken to Forensic Science Associates in Richmond, Calif., which matched the evidence with Brown's DNA, Maxwell said.

The new state law gives inmates convicted of violence crimes the right to DNA testing if certain conditions are met: the defendant's identity was an issue at trial; the evidence was not tested previously; it is reasonable to believe DNA tests could have affected the outcome of the case; and reliable results can be extracted from the evidence.

The law requires courts to keep such evidence for 10 years. Before it was enacted, evidence could be destroyed after the trial was over.

To date, the Georgia Innocence Project has received letters from 1,200 Georgia inmates, Maxwell said. The nonprofit group has agreed to represent Brown and six others, including two convicted in DeKalb County, she said.