30 August 2012 :

The Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals reversed the conviction and death sentence  of Mark Brown, 40, white, ruling that the trial judge illegally instructed the jury that it could find Mr. Brown guilty of capital murder even if he did not intend to kill the victims. Brown was sentenced (See December 15, 2008 and  February 26, 2009) in the deaths of a family of 4 in 2005. On Feb. 8, 2005, Mark Brown and his brother Shannon Brown, and Timothy Patrick Morris allegedly entered a home. Prosecutors say the 3 men bludgeoned 88-year-old Lena Benefield, and her sons, 69-year-old Reo, and 59-year-old Shable; and 49-year-old Durward to death with a baseball bat and set their house on fire. Under Alabama law, a person cannot be convicted of capital murder or subjected to the death penalty unless he specifically intends to kill the victim. Mr. Brown participated in a robbery along with 2 other co-defendants that resulted in the deaths of 4 people, but there were serious questions raised at trial as to what role Mr. Brown played in the offense in relation to his co-defendants. At trial, Mr. Brown accepted responsibility for participating in the robbery but he argued that he never intended for the victims to die, that he did not personally kill them, and that he was therefore guilty of a lesser form of murder rather than capital murder. However, the trial judge incorrectly told the jury that it could find Mr. Brown guilty of capital murder even if he did not personally intend to kill the victims, as long as one of his co-defendants possessed the intent to kill. The court also noted that the prosecutor incorrectly argued to the jury that Mr. Brown could be found guilty of capital murder simply because he participated in the robbery that ultimately led to the murders, concluding that "the prosecutor's statements during closing argument further undermined the reliability of [Mr. Brown's] convictions."