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More than 100 pieces of DNA evidence integral to a rape and manslaughter appeal in Washington County are likely missing, attorneys allege in a recent court filing. The evidence, ranging from a sexual assault kit to fingernail scrapings and strips of masking tape, is tied to the 2002 killing of a 6-year-old girl in Greenville.

If the evidence is lost, attorneys Jacob Howard and Adnan Sultan argue, their client King Young Brown Jr. should have his charges dismissed and his convictions vacated.

Brown is incarcerated in the Marshall County Correctional Facility and serving two consecutive sentences — 30 years for rape and 20 for manslaughter. He was convicted in 2005 of raping and killing the child whom the attorneys refer to as R.W. in their motion. 

It was a day Gloria Brown, King Brown Jr.’s mother, remembers well. She said her life before that day was different. Her son was 15, and had never been arrested before. He will turn 39 in prison next month.

“I may not be behind bars, but I feel like I’m doing the time with him,” Gloria Brown told Mississippi Today.

For many years after the little girl’s death, the family of R.W. held a block party in her honor at H.T. Crosby Park, where she was last seen alive. Addie Cannon, R.W.’s aunt, misses her niece.

Cannon believes the state has the right man behind bars. 

“She was just a little shy child,” Cannon recalled. “I will always remember the way she said, ‘Hey auntie, come give me a hug.’”

Brown Jr.’s attorneys are appealing his convictions and hope a new analysis of the evidence will help to clear their client’s name. They write that as recently as Aug. 29, 2023, the Washington County Circuit Clerk’s Office in Greenville had the evidence. 

On Sept. 16, Washington County Circuit Court Judge Richard A. Smith ordered Circuit Clerk Barbara Esters-Parker to ship the evidence within 30 days to Bode Technology, a Virginia-based company that provides forensic DNA analysis, including newer methods such as Touch DNA and Y-STR testing. Smith’s order also required Esters-Parker to email a copy of the shipping receipt.

But in a Nov. 6 court filing, Howard and Sultan allege that Esters-Parker can’t account for the evidence or the other exhibits.

“More than thirty (30) days have passed since the Court issued its Order and the Clerk has failed to ship the specified biological evidence to Bode Technology,” the attorneys wrote.

Esters-Parker and Deputy Clerk Cynthia Lakes declined to comment because of pending litigation.

If the evidence is not located, the attorneys argued, the court should vacate Brown Jr.’s convictions and drop the related charges, the attorneys wrote. 

On April 21, 2002, R.W. was found dead in a garbage bin that belonged to her grandmother’s neighbors — Brown Jr.  and his family. Brown Jr. was tried three times for the crimes. The first two trials resulted in hung juries. At the third trial, after over 13 hours of deliberation, a jury found Brown Jr. guilty of rape and manslaughter. 

“We remain hopeful that Mr. Brown will have the opportunity to establish his innocence through the DNA testing ordered by the circuit court,” said Sultan, an attorney at The Innocence Project who focuses on securing DNA testing for post-conviction cases and overturning wrongful convictions. Howard, senior counsel for the Mississippi office of the MacArthur Justice Center, also focuses on wrongful convictions.

Modern DNA testing

In their motion, Howard and Sultan said, “Law enforcement collected a wealth of biological evidence in this case that has never been subjected to DNA testing or that can be re-tested using more advanced technology.”

None of the hairs collected from Brown Jr.’s home that underwent microscopic comparison were linked to Webster or her “material relatives” the attorneys wrote. “The results of this testing were never presented to a jury.”

The prosecution’s case against Brown Jr. hinged on the testimony of a hair follicle expert who compared microscopic hairs found at the Brown home to those of the victim, the court filing reads.

There is also controversy over the accuracy of microscopic hair comparison. In 2016, then-FBI Director James Comey wrote in a letter that FBI examiners made statements about the analysis that “went beyond the limits of science,” putting “more weight on a hair comparison than scientifically appropriate.”

In 1999, a Justice Department task force found that 96% of 150 cases involving microscopic hair analysis had flaws. In 2009, the National Academy of Science announced that microscopic hair analysis had “no scientific support.” After Innocence Project co-founder Peter Neufeld asked the FBI to review cases in which microscopic hair analysis had been used in evidence, the FBI established that every member of the agency’s 28-person hair and fiber unit had given flawed testimony in the 268 convictions that were reviewed. 

“In several cases in which microscopic hair comparison evidence was introduced, defendants were later exonerated by DNA after being convicted,” Comey wrote. “We want to make sure there aren’t other innocent people in jail based on our work.”

In R.W.’s case, the state did not submit for modern DNA analysis of any of the DNA evidence nor did prosecutors present it to a jury.

The analyst who inspected the fingernail scrapings from R.W.’s killing in 2005 conceded it was difficult then to make an accurate identification of the perpetrator given the capabilities of technology at that time. Modern DNA testing doesn’t require as large of a DNA sample to get a result. 

Some DNA testing was not used at Brown Jr.’s trial because the defense received the results too late to review them and get an expert in court, according to Howard’s and Sultan’s recent motion.

Earlier this year, on April 8, Assistant District Attorney Austin Frye  responded to a motion for post-conviction DNA testing by listing evidence he said was already presented to the jury including Brown Jr.’s fingerprints on both the outer ring of the garbage bag and garbage bags at his home, and DNA analysis results that proved Brown Jr.’s hairs matched those found in the inner and outer garbage bags of where R.W. was found. He also touted the results of microscopic hair comparison, and he said further DNA testing would not exonerate Brown Jr.

Frye did not address the issue that none of the hairs the state submitted from Brown Jr.’s home matched the victim or any of her material relatives. Frye could not be reached for comment by the time of publication.

Sultan and Howard explained that it would make logical sense that Brown Jr.’s hairs and fingerprints would be found in a garbage bin he along with his family used regularly.

A “wealth” of biological evidence suitable for modern DNA testing became available after Brown Jr.’s 2005 trial, said Huma Nasir, an expert the defense team retained who is a director at a private DNA analysis lab in Oklahoma City.

Howard and Sultan’s Nov. 6 motion asks the Washington County Circuit Court for a hearing to determine the chain of custody of the evidence and to have the circuit clerk and deputy clerk testify under oath.

A 2009 Mississippi law mandates preservation of all biological evidence in criminal cases with the court instructed to “impose appropriate remedies” and “order appropriate sanctions” in the case of violation. The law was amended in 2011 to clarify that when biological evidence needed to be destroyed, the incarcerated and their attorney should be notified along with other interested parties.

“Innocent people mistakenly convicted of the serious crimes for which biological evidence is probative cannot prove their innocence if such evidence is not accessible for testing in appropriate circumstances,” read the 2009 law.

Two decades of difficult memories

When R.W.’s killing made headlines in 2002, both the victim’s family and that of the accused were thrust into the media spotlight. The two families had been next-door neighbors for more than two decades.

For Gloria Brown, King Young Brown Jr.’s mother, the news of potentially missing evidence felt like a blow. She hopes that he will win his appeal. She and his stepfather say they were with Brown Jr. the night R.W. was killed. 

“I felt that it was the end for me, and didn’t feel like I’d survive it,” Gloria Brown said of her son’s trials and convictions. “But I had a lot of family support that helped me. I didn’t think I’d be able to be this strong.”

She says it was hard to watch the police search her home after the murder. Her late husband, King Brown Sr., was a well-respected city councilman in Greenville and known as a peacekeeper during contentious council meetings. She wasn’t accustomed to the scrutiny.

The recent motion about the missing evidence has also dredged up difficult memories for Cannon, R.W.’s aunt. She still remembers the mints that her sister, R.W.’s mother, would bring from Sonic Drive-In. Her niece loved them. Cannon also still remembers the scream she believes was hers on the night R.W. disappeared. 

Cannon remembers the shock of identifying her niece’s body over two decades ago. She is wary of the defense’s push to vacate King Young Brown Jr.’s conviction if the evidence is not located. 

“When my sister passed, that’s when it really took a big toll on me because I know that’s [the killing of R.W.] why she was sick,” Cannon said of R.W.’s other aunt. “And it’s still terrible, just the idea of him thinking that he needs to get out. You don’t need to be in the free world if you can do a child like that. You don’t need to be here.”

Correction 11/24/25: This story has been updated to reflect that attorneys for King Young Brown Jr. want the Washington County Circuit Court to dismiss the charges against him and vacate his convictions if the DNA evidence collected in the case cannot be located.

It is Monday of Egg Bowl Week, and we are in unchartered territory – even for Lane Kiffin.

 I mean this in two ways. First, his Ole Miss Rebels are 10-1 heading into the Egg Bowl, needing only a victory over 5-6 Mississippi State to either earn a bye or a first-round home game in the FBS playoffs. Ole Miss, for the first time since integration, is a legit national championship contender in late November. Secondly, 28 years into his coaching career at age 50, the immensely talented Kiffin has taken his otherwise tired act – that of narcissistic coaching diva – to a new level with his highly public flirtations with Florida and LSU.

Will Kiffin leave Ole Miss for Florida – or, more likely, LSU – or will he stay at Ole Miss and coach his team in the playoffs and beyond? It is almost as if he is a high school recruit, sitting at a press conference with three caps in front of him. Which will he choose?

I have no clue what will happen Friday in Starkville and then Saturday in Oxford when Kiffin’s decision is supposed to come, but clearly Kiffin already has worn out his welcome with a huge segment of Ole Miss faithful.

None of this is normal.

I do have a clue about this: If Kiffin chooses to leave Ole Miss and his team with it headed into the playoffs, that will be his everlasting legacy. He forever will be the coach who deserted his team at its moment of highest achievement.

Think about it, Brian Kelly was roundly criticized for leaving Notre Dame for LSU when the Irish were still under playoff consideration (not when they were already in). Kelly famously left Notre Dame because he thought LSU afforded him a better opportunity to coach a national championship team. We see how that turned out. Notre Dame, under Kelly’s successor, Marcus Freeman, has at least played for the national championship earlier this year. Meanwhile, LSU has fired Kelly, who never made the playoffs at Baton Rouge, and now the school is scheming every which way on how to not pay Kelly what’s left on his contract.

None of that would appear to matter to Kiffin, who seems completely oblivious to the image he portrays. That is a telling characteristic of a narcissist, a person who exhibits a grandiose sense of self-importance, a need for excessive admiration, a lack of empathy, and a sense of entitlement. A diva simply enjoys all the attention.

Many, including Kiffin’s former boss, Nick Saban, blame the current college football system for the situation Kiffin and Ole Miss find themselves in. And, yes, it is a bad system. But for my money what Kiffin is doing can’t all be blamed on the system.

Kiffin has spoken in the past about how OIe Miss and the Oxford community have been integral in his personal growth and transformation. He has gone so far as to say he needed Oxford and Ole Miss more than Oxford and Ole Miss have needed him. I would agree. But they have been good for each other. If Ole Miss wins Friday, as the Rebels are favored to do, that will make 50 victories over the past five seasons. Yes, Kiffin, an offensive genius, has been good for Oxford. Ole Miss enrollment is up nearly 17 percent over that period. Coincidence? No.

But then Ole Miss has compensated Kiffin royally for his success. He makes nearly $10 million a year, more than twice what any Ole Miss coach has made before him. The university has raised his assistants’ salary pool to a point where it is competitive with any. Ole Miss has been on the cutting edge in NIL compensation for its football athletes. Ole Miss held its nose and abided Kiffin’s well publicized dalliance with Auburn three years ago – one that ruined another promising season – and has given Kiffin almost a blank check for what he needs to compete with the nation’s football powerhouses. What’s more, Keith Carter has pledged to provide even more. And yet Kiffin’s family has made quite public visits to Gainesville and Baton Rouge to check out schools and neighborhoods. Said one of my most loyal friends, a zealous Ole Miss fan for more than six decades, “I just wish Lane wouldn’t rub our faces in it.”

Kiffin, however, is oblivious.

One person, whose opinion I highly value, tells me I am overreacting to Kiffin’s public waffling. He says the Ole Miss-Lane Kiffin situation is the new normal in college athletics. He says the coaches are mercenaries and the players are mercenaries, as well. Get used to it.

Further, he says, “The days of college coaches and athletes caring for the school as much as the fans and alumni are over, gone forever.“

The more I think about it, the more I realize he is correct. But I don’t have to like it. And I don’t.

The link between good, affordable child care and economic development is discussed by Cathy Grace of Tupelo, the early childhood program specialist with the nonprofit North Mississippi Education Consortium. She praised Gov. Tate Reeves and other Mississippi political leaders for acknowledging the need for an additional commitment to child care, but said much more of an effort by the state is needed than what is currently being proposed.

The long-hidden monument to bigotry and brutality — the Mississippi Delta barn where Emmett Till was tortured and killed in 1955 — will soon become a “sacred site” for all to see.

On Monday, the Emmett Till Interpretive Center announced that it had purchased the barn, thanks to a $1.5 million gift from TV producer Shonda Rhimes, who was moved to donate after reading about the barn, saying, “My hope is that this story never gets lost.”

Dave Tell, author of “Remembering Emmett Till,” said the barn was “written out of history by the very men who committed the crime there — erased from public memory as part of a broader effort to bury the truth and protect white perpetrators. Preserving it now is an intentional act of restoration.”

About 2 a.m. on Aug. 28, 1955, J.W. Milam, his brother, Roy Bryant, and others abducted the Black Chicago 14-year-old from the home of his uncle that he was visiting and took him to the barn, where they beat and killed him.

Till’s mother, Mamie, insisted on an open casket “to let the world see what they did to my son.” Thousands streamed past his body. Some wept. Some fainted. All were moved.

The brothers admitted to authorities they had kidnapped Till, but claimed they had released him unharmed. A month later, they went on trial for murder, but an all-white jury acquitted them.

Months later, the brothers admitted in Look magazine that they had indeed beaten and killed Till, but authorities were unable to prosecute the brothers again because of double jeopardy.

That Look magazine article also concealed the existence of the barn because that would implicate the others involved, some of whom worked at the barn, Tell said. “Till was killed because of racism. And the barn was pushed out of public memory because of racism. It’s all part of the same story.”

For Keith Beauchamp, producer of the “Till” film and director-producer of “The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till,” the barn’s preservation brings mixed emotions.

“On one hand, it’s significant that a physical site connected to Emmett Till’s story will be preserved for future generations,” he said. “On the other hand, it’s also a place that represents deep pain and injustice. Regardless, it is a part of American history that must be acknowledged rather than forgotten, because remembering helps us understand and avoid repeating past mistakes.”

Beauchamp thanked Rhimes for her “generous gift to help preserve this history, especially during a time of debate over how our past should be remembered.”

He praised Jeff Andrews, who bought the property that included the barn in 1994. After learning about the barn, Andrews began to let Till’s family and other visitors spend time at the historic site.

Beauchamp praised his care, “maintaining the barn and welcoming the public, kept the site meaningful long before any official preservation began.”

In 2007, a group of Tallahatchie County citizens, Black and white, gathered outside the courthouse in Sumner — the same courthouse where Till’s killers walked free — and publicly apologized.

An open letter published Monday on the Emmett Till Interpretive Center website says, “That act of honesty became a moral compass for our work. Since then, we have restored the courthouse where justice failed, commemorated the riverbank where Emmett’s body was found, and replaced the signs that hatred tried to destroy. Every project has carried the same conviction: a nation does not grow stronger by forgetting; it grows stronger by telling the truth. The barn is the next chapter in that conviction.”

On its website, the center said, “We did not want to have to pay for sacred ground. We understand that many other people also feel that even $1 is too much to pay for a site where such deep harm occurred. It’s an obstacle we wrestled with every step of the way. We explored every possible alternative to purchase, including asking for the owner to donate the property and exploring legal options including easements and eminent domain, but none were viable.

“The turning point came when we asked ourselves: What happens if someone else buys it? We could not risk this site — one of the most sacred in American history — falling into the hands of speculators or even hate groups. The barn is simply too important to leave to chance.”

The center, which has partnered with the National Park Service, will hold the title to the barn: “We chose preservation over risk, and truth over silence — because you can’t put a price on our history.”

Davis Houck, the founding director of the Emmett Till Archives at Florida State University as well as the Fannie Lou Hamer Professor of Rhetorical Studies, said the fact the money to purchase the barn came from private philanthropy “makes this a most generous gift — to the community of Drew, to the state of Mississippi, and ultimately to the entire nation.”

The center’s director, Patrick Weems, told Mississippi Today that buying the barn is just the start of this major project for the nonprofit. “Now we’re working to raise the resources to transform it into a sacred site,” he said.

By the 75th anniversary of Till’s lynching in 2030, the center says it plans to open the barn “as a part of a larger public memorial — a place of truth, creativity and conscience. Visitors will come not to look at tragedy, but to confront their own role in the ongoing work of democracy.”

The center says its role “is not possession, but protection — serving as caretakers on behalf of the community and the nation.”

The center says its work “has always been shaped by the truth, courage and moral vision of the Till family, especially Mamie Till-Mobley’s charge that ‘let the world see.’ … We will continue to listen to and engage family members, descendants, and community elders as we transform this site of trauma into a sacred space for remembrance, healing and collective conscience.”

Till’s cousin, Deborah Watts, co-founder of the Emmett Till Legacy Foundation, echoed the center’s sentiment. “We consider that area sacred ground where Emmett was murdered,” she said.

She welcomes further conversations with the center and wants to learn more about the upcoming plans, she said. “Will the family’s concerns be in consideration?”

Possible plans include creating a welcome center for visitors in nearby Drew. “For too long, people in the Delta — especially in places like Drew — have carried the weight of this story without the world truly seeing us,” said Gloria Dickerson, founder of We2Gether Creating Change, a nonprofit based in Drew. “The barn’s preservation means our voices, our land and our legacy will finally be part of how the world remembers Emmett Till — and how it learns from him.”

Another welcome center may be built in Mound Bayou, Mississippi’s first all-Black town, where Medgar Evers once sold insurance for his mentor, civil rights leader and surgeon Dr. T.R.M. Howard.

Both men worked on the Till case, tracking down witnesses for the historic trial that drew international attention. The injustice of the killers getting away with murder helped propel the modern civil rights movement.

Author Wright Thompson, who wrote “The Barn” about this historic piece of soil, called the purchase “the most important thing to happen to the Delta in generations because history is most accurately told here, and most reliably erased, through the land. Who owns it, who farms it, who lived and died on it, whose ghost is trapped in it. The Delta remains a place where power is tied to ownership of the dirt.”

He praised Rhimes for stepping “into the breach and through her generosity, the dirt has been reclaimed, and once reclaimed, the slow process of cleaning the blood from it can begin. This is a place people will visit for generations.”

SOUTHAVEN – Jason Haley, who’s lived in his Southaven home for the last two decades, in August started to hear a whirring, mechanical noise from outside that sounded like a leaf blower. 

The noise would go on for days at a time and through the night, he told Mississippi Today. He soon realized the sounds were coming from a cluster of natural gas turbines about a half mile away.

Over the summer, billionaire Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company set up shop in north Mississippi, erecting dozens of turbines on the site of a former power plant to fuel two data centers just up the road in Memphis. 

In 2024, the company, xAI, finished construction on the first center, Colossus, which it claims houses the “world’s biggest supercomputer.” Colossus holds over 200,000 computer chips powering the AI chatbot Grok. The company is now building the second iteration, Colossus II, near the Mississippi state line. To help power the operation, xAI planted 59 natural gas turbines in Southaven. 

Eighteen turbines are currently running, as the company awaits permit approval through the state for the remainder. Mississippi regulators, though, aren’t monitoring air emissions from those 18 turbines because they fall into a “temporary-mobile” category. 

The designation means they aren’t subject to air emissions oversight as long as they operate for less than a year, state regulators told Mississippi Today. The Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality said it adopted standards used by the Environmental Protection Agency. 

But some, including people living near the Southaven power generators, disagreed with MDEQ’s approach and argued a lack of enforcement and transparency will force them to breathe unsafe air. 

“This isn’t some far away industrial site, this is smack in the middle of a suburban area,” said lifelong Southaven resident Shannon Samsa. She is especially worried about the impact of particulates from the turbines on kids at the multiple schools within a 3-mile radius from the plant.

Debate over EPA air pollution rules

Natural gas turbines are considered cleaner than coal but still release air pollutants such as nitrous oxides and particulate matter. Exposure to those can lead to heart and lung complications, the EPA says.

Amanda Garcia, an attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center, argued MDEQ’s basis for allowing the temporary turbines to run without permits is flawed and violates the federal Clean Air Act. The turbines fall under the EPA’s “New Source Performance Standards” and need to be treated as a “stationary” source, she argued.

“While (the EPA) hasn’t weighed in directly, they’ve made pretty clear their interpretation is these large combustion turbines are subject to New Source Performance Standards, which means they need to get a permit,” said Garcia, who also led litigation from the NAACP over temporary turbines xAI placed in Memphis. 

Last year, Garcia’s group made the same argument to officials in Shelby County, where Memphis is located, over xAI needing permits for the generators. In January, the company finally applied for permits for its Memphis turbines, and then moved others to Mississippi, the Wall Street Journal reported. 

The Memphis metropolitan area, which includes Southaven, already has smog-pollution levels that surpass federal standards, Garcia said. 

“One of our big concerns was that this huge unpermitted installation of gas turbines had become the largest source of smog forming pollution in Shelby County, and we have the same concern about the installation in Southaven,” she said. 

Last December, the EPA proposed amending emissions standards for different types of turbines. In a statement to Mississippi Today, the EPA did not address whether MDEQ had properly applied current federal standards. 

“EPA is working expeditiously to issue a final rule,” said the agency. 

The EPA statement also criticized Democratic members of Congress over the recently ended government shutdown, saying the “Democrat shutdown disrupted critical functions of our agency and others across the federal government.”

When asked for a response to Garcia’s argument over EPA’s standards, MDEQ replied in an e-mail to Mississippi Today, “It would not be appropriate for MDEQ to engage in a legal debate through this means.”

Residents yet to see noise mitigation

Haley, living near the turbines, said he hopes something can be done to limit the noise. The temporary turbines have another nine months before they reach their one-year limit. 

“I can’t live here like this for another nine months. It’s going to drive me crazy,” Haley said, adding he’s filed noise complaints, talked with the police department and emailed the mayor. 

Friends suggested he sell his house and move. He likes his house and worries about his neighbors who aren’t in a financial position to move. But if the noise continues, he believes he might not have a choice. 

In a Nov. 19 email to Mississippi Today, Southaven Mayor Darren Musselwhite said, “The noise is mostly temporary construction noise that will go away within days. xAI has assured the City that any and all necessary adjustments will be made within days to mitigate any noise and not negatively impact surrounding developments and neighborhoods in any way.”

A Mississippi Today reporter recorded sounds at 7 p.m. on Nov. 12 of a constant loud humming noise easily heard from homes in the Colonial Hills subdivision of Southaven half a mile from the xAI power plant. Reporters also reviewed recordings by Southaven residents of similar sounds heard on different dates.

When Samsa heard that xAI would be operating a power plant two miles from her home, she was willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. She’d heard about environmental concerns surrounding xAI’s data centers in Memphis, where residents have pushed for stricter air quality monitoring.

Samsa remembers thinking that after everything that happened in Memphis, public officials would take steps to protect Southaven residents. While Musselwhite has assured the generators will have a “very low” environmental risk, she’s found the lack of public information around the turbines’ impacts worrying. 

“If a project is truly healthy and safe, why not be transparent about it,” Samsa said. 

The 41 permanent turbines will have a maximum generation capacity of 1,200 megawatts, while the temporary generators will only be able to reach about 400 megawatts, MDEQ told Mississippi Today in an email. 

While notifying xAI that the temporary turbines fall into a special criteria precluding them from emissions limits, MDEQ in a July letter “implored” the company to “operate … in a manner that minimizes the emission” of nitrous oxides and particulate matter.

“In conversations we’ve had with (xAI), I think they have the right intentions,” MDEQ director Chris Wells later told Mississippi Today. 

Mississippi Today reached out to xAI with questions about emission controls and noise complaints and received what appeared to be an automated message that said, “Legacy Media Lies.”