AG Marshall Announces Court of Criminal Appeals Upholds Choctaw County Murder Conviction

Attorney General Steve Marshall announced the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals has upheld the murder conviction of Joe Brown. Brown, 55, of Butler, was convicted in Choctaw County Circuit Court in March of 2017 for the murder of Jeremy James.

             Evidence presented at trial showed that on August 22, 2014, Brown killed James by an attack that caused injuries including cutting James’ jugular vein. The victim was found next to his truck, left on Johnny Williams Road, a dirt road in Choctaw County. Law enforcement used a tracking dog to find who may have fled the scene of the crime. The tracking dog picked up a scent from a pool of blood where James’ body was found, and tracked the scent to where Brown lived. Among other evidence connecting Brown to the murder, Brown’s DNA was found on vegetation at the crime scene and on nail clippings from James’s hand.  Also, a witness placed Brown at the scene where James’s body was found.  The circumstances of the murder are not known.

            The case was prosecuted at trial by Choctaw County District Attorney Spence Walker’s Office. Brown was sentenced as a habitual offender to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole and subsequently sought to have his conviction reversed on appeal. The Attorney General’s Criminal Appeals Division handled Brown’s case during the appeals process, arguing for the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals to affirm the conviction. The Court did so in a decision issued Friday, March 9.

            Attorney General Marshall commended Assistant Attorney General Beth Slate Poe of the Attorney General’s Criminal Appeals Division for her successful work in this case.