Kennedy Brewer

Going into this case I was unsure what to make the title Almost always the title reflects the perpetrator of a crime, even those who have been exonerated. When there are several perpetrators I generally will title the blog “The murder of....' or if the perpetrators have garnered a nickname, such as The West Memphis Three, I will title the blog that way. Kennedy Brewer's case cannot be told without also talking about the Levon Brooks case. The two crimes were mirror images of each other and just as Brewer would be convicted, so had Brooks. Their story cannot be told without the story of Justin Johnson, the man who was the actual perpetrator of the crimes that Brewer and Brooks would be convicted. Then there is the story of forensic odontologist, Michael West. He testified at the trials of both Brewer and Brooks and not only would he be suspended from the Board of Forensic Odontology, he would later say himself, “I no longer believe in bite-mark analysis.”

I found my way to the Kennedy Brewer case when I researched the Carol Ege case recently. In the Ege case she had been convicted in her first trial based on the evidence of Dr. Allan Warnick, a forensic odontologist. Her original conviction had been overturned based on the bite-mark testimony of Warnick saying there had been issues with many of his cases. While this is true, the issue seems to have been not just Warnick but the idea of forensic odontology itself and those who advocated for it. From the way that I understood things, while science was evolving and things such as DNA and other advances were being made it seems as if dentists were feeling out of the loop and in essence invented their own “science.” They wanted the recognition and prestige found in other areas. So, men like Allan Warnick and Michael West began all but making things up as they went along. While Warnick's testimony and behavior in the Ege case may have seemed outrageous, it was nothing compared to West's behavior.

On the morning of May 3, 1992 authorities in Noxubee County Mississippi received a 911 call that three year old Christine Jackson was missing from her home. Her mother, Gloria and her mother's boyfriend, Kennedy Brewer would allege that they had awoken and Christine was gone. By that afternoon, although Christine had not been found as of yet, both Gloria and Kennedy would be behind bars. It was said that Gloria Jackson, who had two younger children with Kennedy Brewer had been accused of abuse and neglect in the past but to be fair I am unsure just what charged they alleged initially on that May morning. Two days later Christine's body would be found in the Noxubee County Creek, not 500 yards from her home. While I was unable to determine an official cause of death it was said that she had been sexually abused and apparently semen, although a very small amount had been found. In fact, the amount was so small that it was said in 1992 there was not enough to be tested.

Investigators seemed to “have their man.” They would allege that obviously Kennedy Brewer had been the perpetrator. He had been home alone with Christine and her two younger siblings the night before while Gloria had been out with friends. He had a few of his own friends over to the house but at least at that point the investigators believed whatever had happened to Christine happened when only Kennedy was alone with her. Investigators would also say that there was no forced entry into the home, however, they seemed to leave out to at least the media that the room in which Christine slept on a makeshift pallet of sofa cushions had a broken window that could have been accessed.

Something that I found extremely interesting was the fact that the investigator and the prosecutor in the case against Kennedy Brewer had seen this exact same crime eighteen months earlier and had not even batted an eye. In the previous case three year old Courtney Smith had been raped and murdered and left in a pond near her home. Her mother's boyfriend, Levon Brooks had been charged, convicted and given a life sentence. Brooks had been largely convicted on the testimony of Dr. Michael West who had testified that bite marks on Courtney's body had been made by him, but only by his top two teeth only. Now, here they were eighteen months later with an almost exact crime. It would be Brewer's defense that would bring up the Courtney Smith case but prosecutors and investigators insisted they were not related.

Although I could not really find an adequate answer as to why, Kennedy Brewer would remain in jail for the next three years awaiting his trial. Gloria Jackson had spent seven months in jail before prosecutors decided to drop charges against her and only proceed against Kennedy. His trial would finally begin in March of 1995 and the prosecutor was seeking the death penalty. Just as he had done in the Courtney Smith case, medical examiner, Steven Hayne would testify that he had found several marks on the child's body that he believed to be human bite marks, and just as he had on the Smith case he called in Michael West. West would analyze up to nineteen marks left on the body and would testify that “without a doubt” those marks, or at least many of them (it depends on what you read to determine this), were made by Brewer. But, West would insist that the marks were only made by Brewer's top two teeth only, something he had also claimed in the case against Levon Brooks. The thing is at the time West testified against Brewer he had been suspended from the American Board of Forensic Odontoloy. He had long apparently been discredited. The question became whether the prosecution knew this before they put West on the stand or if they even cared. West was giving them the information they needed to garner a conviction. My research indicates that not only did the prosecution know of West's suspension but so did the courts and they continued to allow him to testify.

The defense presented Dr. Richard Souviron, a founding member of the American Board of Forensic Odontology, the same board that had suspended West for his practices. He testified that the marks made were not only not human bites, and bites of insects but that it was all but impossible for someone to repeatedly leave only impressions of their two top teeth only.

The prosecution would claim there were various small blood spots on Brewer's clothing that morning as well as on a blanket found next to where he was sleeping but none of these spots were even big enough to be blood typed, let alone tested for DNA. This means they could not even technically determine the specks were blood at all. But of course that is not how the prosecution presented the case.

On March 24, 1995 Kennedy Brewer was convicted in the capital murder and sexual battery of Christine Jackson and was sentenced to death.

In 2001 advanced DNA testing was available and was conducted on the semen sample that had been recovered. The results not only excluded Brewer from contributing, but it revealed the profile of an unknown male Prosecutors could not have this so they tested first two friends that had visited with Brewer on the night of Christine's disappearance and when they were not a match they began testing many of Brewer's relatives. Still, there were no matches. In 2002 the courts vacated Brewer's conviction and he was removed from death row. That was hardly the end of things though.

Forrest Allgood, the prosecutor on the case insisted that Brewer was guilty. He appealed the decision made by he courts to vacate the decision and lost. He also insisted that he was going to continue to seek the death penalty again, which meant that Brewer remained in jail without bond. It remained this way for over five more years. While Allgood had insisted at the trial that Brewer had murdered Christine in the master bedroom and that he had acted alone, he was now saying that Brewer had assisted someone else in the murder. Allgood argued that despite the DNA results this did not mean that Brewer was innocent. In the same respect Allgood told the media that he had informed the sheriff's office of the DNA results but the sheriff's office would claim that they had not received anything official that would have allowed them to re-open the case at all. In fact, it was later revealed that between 2002, when DNA results excluded Brewer and 2007 when Creekmore took over and he was released, absolutely nothing was done to find the source of the DNA found. In 2005 Allgood told defense attorney's that a jailhouse informer had come forward saying that Brewer had confessed that he had been forced at gunpoint to bite Christine. When asked about running the DNA results in the State Database Allgood insisted that there as not one available. This was a lie.

While the case languished and it seems that Allgood kept digging a bigger hole for himself, in March of 2006 one of Brewer's former attorneys began working for Allgood's staff in the District Attorney's Office and Allgood officially agreed to recuse himself. At this point Ben Creekmore, an attorney from Oxford Mississippi was appointed special prosecutor. He agreed not to seek the death penalty after reviewing the case and did not oppose bail. In August of 2007 Brewer was finally released on bail.

The Innocence Project had long since taken on Kennedy's case and because of the similarities in the Courtney Smith case they long suspected they would also be taking on Levon Brooks' case. In February of 2008 charges against Kennedy Brewer were dropped and Levon Brooks was released pending further investigation. A man by the name of Justin Johnson had been found, confessed, and in the case of Christine Jackson had been found to be the perpetrator.

I found it very interesting that after Justin Johnson was arrested he was suddenly described as 'an original suspect” in both the murders of Christine Jackson and Courtney Smith. I do not believe this for one second. Johnson did have a history of sexually assaulting women and girls, and he knew people that lived near both crime scenes. I cannot say for certain how fast Levon Brooks was arrested, but I can say that Kennedy Brewer was arrested within hours of Christine's disappearance, and days before her body was found. To later say Johnson was an “original suspect” in both crimes really is an insult to my intelligence. If this was the case then when they realized how closely the case resembled the case of Courtney Smith they would not have arrested Gloria Jackson and Kennedy Brewer so quickly. And yet both Brewer and Levon Brooks arrested and convicted.

While the charges against Kennedy Brewer were officially dropped based on the DNA results, it would take another month before charges against Brooks would be dropped and then it was solely based on Johnson's confession considering there was not DNA available in that case. Both Brewer and Brooks would get $50,000 for each year that they spent in prison for crimes they did not commit, so, about $500,000 each.

In the Mississippi Department of Corrections there are three Justin Johnson's in the system. I believe the one from this case was convicted in October of 2008 on two drug charges and received two, ten year sentences. The reason that I believe this is the correct Justin Johnson is because in 2012 he received a conviction on the charges of capital murder out of Noxubee County.

As far as Michael West goes... he apparently no longer believes in bite mark analysis, or so he says. One has to wonder if he ever really did believe in the “science” or if he only pretended to do so as long as he was making money from it. Forensic Odontology has often been referred to as “junk science” and is not used very much any more as far as I can tell.

There are those who say that there are two types of justice in Mississippi. First is the justice that has gone back and tried to right the wrongs of their past history by bringing closure to many cases that involved the KKK during the Civil Rights era of the 1960's. Then there are those who say the second form of justice in Mississippi is the same “justice” they have always dished out to the black man. With the state of affairs as they are now in 2018 sadly I do not see that changing any time soon.