Danny Brown’s Struggle to Reclaim His Name

Danny Brown is a 50-year old man who lives in Toledo, OH. He was wrongly convicted in 1982 of the rape-murder of a woman with whom he had a casual acquaintance. Danny served 19 years for a crime he did not commit. Danny maintained his innocence throughout the investigation and trial, even to the point of rejecting a plea-bargain that could have freed him after serving one year in prison.

Throughout the trial, his belief in the ultimate triumph of truth gave him confidence that he would be vindicated. There was no physical evidence connecting Danny to the crimes, and circumstantial evidence was riddled with holes. However, a six-year old boy’s inconsistent, often-contradictory testimony was enough to convince a jury to convict Mr. Brown of aggravated murder.

Danny continued to fight for his freedom during the nearly two decades spent behind bars. However, it wasn’t until the DNA evidence was analyzed in the year 2000 that Danny was ultimately freed. The semen recovered from the victim was eventually tied to a convicted murderer named Sherman Preston. Ironically, at the time of the DNA identification, Preston was incarcerated for similar murders.

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