Attorneys for Adam Braseel, left, serving a life sentence for murder, say eyewitnesses mistook him for Kermit Bryson, right, a felon who died after killing a police officer in 2008.
https://www.knoxnews.com/story/news/crime/2019/05/13/adam-braseel-new-trial-life-murder-wrongful-conviction-grundy-county-malcolm-burrows-kermit-bryson/1157712001/
Adam Braseel says new evidence shows he’s serving life for a dead man’s crime.
Grundy County prosecutors say too little, too late.
Braseel, 36, has spent 12 years in prison so far for the killing of Malcolm Burrows, 60, on a rural roadside near Tracy City. A judge could hear his bid for a new trial next month.
‘No objective similarity’
Burrows’ killer beat him to death the night of Jan. 7, 2006, after a man showed up at Burrows’ home asking for help with a car that wouldn’t start. Burrows offered the man a ride in his Chrysler and never came back.
Fingerprints found on the Chrysler’s passenger door handle at the murder scene belong not to Braseel, but to Kermit Eugene Bryson, a local felon who killed himself two years later while on the run for gunning down Shane Tate, a Grundy County deputy.
Revelations of the prints have led to calls for a new trial, including from the current Grundy County sheriff.
So what? say prosecutors. Burrows — a small-time politician, shade-tree mechanic and convicted drug dealer — was well-known in Grundy County and drew visitors at all hours. Read more>>