Search Results - Brian Baldwin

Brian Baldwin

Brian Keith Baldwin (July 16, 1958 – June 18, 1999) was an African-American man from Charlotte, North Carolina, United States of America, who was executed in 1999 in Alabama. Many believe that he was wrongfully convicted of the 1977 rape and murder of a 16-year-old white girl in Monroe County. Although Baldwin was involved in the initial robbery and kidnapping of the victim, the only evidence against him in the murder was his confession, which he later retracted. He said it was coerced by the local police in Wilcox County, Alabama, where he was arrested, claiming that they had beat and tortured him under interrogation.

A 1985 letter by his co-defendant Edward Dean Horsley surfaced in 1996, after Horsley's execution. Horsley wrote that he had acted alone in the rape and murder of Naomi Rolon and Baldwin had not known of her death.

Death penalty opponents regard this case as one in which racial bias contributed to the wrongful conviction by an all-white jury of an 18-year-old black man, in a county that was 46% black in population. Further, they believe he was executed despite evidence that he did not commit Rolon's murder. The appeals process was marked by conflicts of interest, as the presiding judge at Baldwin's trial also ruled on the appeals, against common practice. Before Baldwin's execution in 1999, leading political and religious figures petitioned Governor Don Siegelman for clemency on his behalf. Siegelman refused, saying that although he was "deeply troubled by some of the matters raised," he wrote "this matter does not rise to a level that warrants clemency." Provided by Wikipedia