Adam Clyde Braseel (born April 5, 1983) is an American former UPS worker who spent 12 years in prison after being wrongfully convicted of a 2006 home invasion and murder in Grundy County Tennessee.
Andrew Martin West, a patrol officer with the Grundy County Sheriff's Department, drove to 60-year-old Malcolm Burrows' home on the outskirts of Tracy City on Mellisa Rock Road.
Hill said the same man had been at the house 30 minutes earlier and told her brother, Malcolm Burrows, that his car was broken down up the road.
She said the same man came back alone and asked her to get starting fluid from under the sink, and when she bent down to look for it, he beat her over the head with a metallic object.
He said the man ran out of the house and drove off in a gold colored car with a sun roof and a dent on the driver's side fender.
[5] Burrows' neighbor, Jeff White, testified that Braden had told him when it happened that he had not seen a car at all, and said the man had run off on foot.
[6] Deputy Andrew West testified that Sergeant Mike Brown of the Grundy County Sheriff's department first discovered Burrows' body besides the Chrysler.
The jury convicted Braseel and the trial court gave him an effective sentence of life with the possibility of parole after a minimum of 51 years.
[5] The case is credited to be uncovered by New York crime writer and short film maker David Sale.
Sale saw the efforts of Adam's sister Christina Braseel to free her brother, and worked to"uncovered significant problems in the state's evidence.
[4] Sale received documents from Christina that raised doubts the motive of the brutal attack on Burrows was over a wallet.
He noted that the Grundy County deputy, Sergeant Mike Brown, who found Burrows' body, had not testified at the trial.
Brown did appear at the 2019 Coram Nobis hearings, where he testified that when he found the Body of Malcolm, Burrows, his wallet was in his back pocket.
[7] When asked by 12th Circuit Prosector Steve Strain if the sheriff's department intentionally lost his report to conceal evidence, Brown answered, “it wouldn't be unusual.” When the packed courtroom erupted in agreement.
Sale's allegations were backed up by Knoxville writer Matt Lakin: "Burrows, a convicted drug dealer and local political figure, was known to carry wads of cash.
He said it was a theory they fist had but dismissed when they couldn't verify any horses were killed "The county's most notorious pill dealer gets murdered and nobody says a word on who he is," Sale said in an interview with Dennis Ferrier.
[6] This is when Sale contacted attorney Alex Little who took the case, and with the new evidence and witnesses brought to him by Sale, filed both a writ of Coram Nobis back to Judge Angel, and a Federal Habeas corpus which Justice Curtis Collier of the U.S.District Court of Eastern Tennessee ordered a stay of federal proceedings, pending outcome of what happened at the circuit court.
This was Information Sale had put together at the beginning, after finding the original Jay Douglas statement and publishing it on his website for all to see.
Only when Brown was set to come testify, Strain revealed that a year and half ago, the state had re-examined a fingerprint found on the passenger side of the car Burrows drove to help the man.
The print this time was matched to Kermit Bryson, an alleged killer in the 2018 slaying of Grundy County deputy Shane Tate.
[6] In 2020, a hearing in front of the parole board resulted in the unanimous recommendation to the governor that he exonerate Adam Braseel.
In December, 2021, Governor Bill Lee of Tennessee granted Adam Braseel a full exoneration on all charges.