Center on Wrongful Convictions
The Florida Exonerated: Joseph Green Brown

When the snitch lied, the prosecutor stood moot

Shabaka Brown (Photo: Andrew Lichtenstein)

Shabaka Brown, also known as Joseph Green Brown, was sentenced to death in 1974 for the rape and murder of the owner of a small shop in Tampa, Florida, after a trial at which he was represented by a 30-year-old court-appointed lawyer whom the state paid only $2,800 for the case.

The prosecution rested primarily on the testimony of a man who claimed to have committed an unrelated robbery with Brown and who testified in exchange for leniency. When the witness was asked on cross examination if he had been promised anything in return for his testimony, he responded that he had not when, in fact, he had struck a deal with the prosecution eight months earlier. The prosecution did nothing to correct the perjury.

In addition, the prosecution falsely informed the jury that a handgun Brown had turned over to police at the time of his arrest had been used in the crime, although FBI ballistics tests had eliminated that possibility.

In 1986, just 15 hours before Brown's scheduled execution, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit granted his petition for a writ of habeas corpus, holding that the prosecutor had knowingly allowed and exploited false testimony from the state's star witness; the reversal was based largely on a reinvestigation of the case by Centurion Ministries.

The state dropped all charges on March 5, 1987.

Case Data

Jurisdiction: Hillsborough County, Florida

Date of crime: July 7, 1973

Date of arrest: July 8, 1973

Charge: Rape, robbery, and first-degree murder

Sentence: Death

Release or exoneration date: March 5, 1987

Months wrongfully incarcerated: 165

Defendant date of birth: 1949

Defendant race: African American

Race of victim(s): Caucasian

Defendant prior felony record: None

Known factors leading to wrongful conviction: False testimony of a witness granted leniency in an unrelated case, prosecutorial misconduct, ineffective assistance of counsel, junk science

Did an appellate court ever affirm conviction? Yes

Exonerated by: Reinvestigation by Centurion Ministries, all charges dropped

Compensation for wrongful imprisonment: None

The foregoing summary was prepared by Rob Warden, executive director of the Center on Wrongful Convictions. Permission is granted to reprint, quote, or post on other web sites with appropriate attribution.

Further reading: Siegel, Barry, A System On Trial/Sentencing The Wrong Man To Die, Los Angeles Times, May 10, 1987, p. 1.

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