In November 2007, 24-year-old Adam Braseel was convicted of multiple charges including first-degree murder, and sentenced to life with the possibility of parole. In Tennessee, this possibility isn’t what it sounds like—no one convicted of first-degree murder is eligible for parole until after they’ve spent 51 years in prison.
For about five years, Braseel and I were housed a few cells apart at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution. When I first met him, he immediately told me he was innocent and that he needed any help he could get. I can still hear the desperation in his voice.
Braseel’s trial had been a travesty. There was no forensic evidence implicating him in the murder; he was identified through only a photo lineup. Witnesses who could have confirmed his alibi were not called. The victim was an established local drug distributor and multiple people at that time had been motivated to kill him, but none of that ever came up in court. The supposed motivation for the murder was a stolen wallet—according to perjured testimony from a sheriff. It turned out that the wallet hadn’t even been stolen in the first place; police had found it on the victim’s body but never entered it into the evidence.
Several jurors initially wanted to find Braseel not guilty, but switched their votes under pressure from the foreman who assured them, “Don’t worry. If Adam is innocent, he can fix it on appeal.”
After relocating to a different county, one juror later revealed that she had not voted to find Braseel guilty. No one had ever checked to make sure the jury vote was unanimous.
Braseel did appeal his conviction. The appeal was rejected.
“To be locked back up … was the most gut-wrenching experience I ever had. It’s the stuff nightmares are made of.”
In 2015, a new judge took an interest in Braseel’s case and vacated the conviction. He was free—for nine months. The state’s Court of Criminal Appeals overturned the decision, and he was taken back to prison.
“To be locked back up, after being innocent in prison, was the most gut-wrenching experience I ever had,” Braseel told Filter. “It’s the stuff nightmares are made of. I had fought so hard for so many years … I didn’t know if I would ever come home again.”
But in 2017, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation retested fingerprint evidence used in his case. The technology had advanced while he’d been in prison, and the results substantially undermined the guilty finding. This ultimately led to prosecutors offering to drop the first-degree murder charge in 2019 if Braseel pled guilty to second-degree murder, which meant he could be released in five years. He refused.
They can back with a counteroffer: if Braseel took an Alford plea on an assault charge, he could go home that day. Also known as a “best-interest” plea, this means the person doesn’t admit guilt, but does plead guilty because the taking the deal is their best legal option. Braseel took it, and was finally free for good.
Back in 2017 Tennessee had no legal pathway for people who’d already been convicted to petition for new testing of fingerprint evidence. The fingerprint in Braseel’s case was retested somewhat by luck. Had he been able to petition for the testing directly, it might have have spared him many years in prison. But because of his case, as of 2021 others in his position are able to file such petitions.
By 2017 Tennessee had also closed the legal pathway that had made it possible for people who’d pled guilty, including “best-interest” pleas, to get back in court when new non-scientific evidence (like surveillance footage) came to light.
In April, Governor Bill Lee (R) signed a law that clears the way for people to file a petition “alleging actual innocence based on new evidence” even if they’d previously pled guilty. It establishes a process for district attorneys to present evidence of someone’s innocence. And it removes the distinction between scientific and non-scientific evidence. As long as there’s new evidence, people can file petitions for post-conviction relief at any time, streamlining the bureaucracy that kept many people who maintain their innocence from accessing the courts.
In 2021, Braseel received a phone call from Governor Lee and learned he would be the first person murder conviction to be exonerated in Tennessee. He has since received a $1,000,000 settlement from the state, the maximum amount allowed.
“I had so many people fighting for me,” Braseel said. “Blasting my story all over social media. My attorneys, Alex Little and Zach Lawson, were superstars.”
Little and Lawson also represented reality TV stars Julie and Todd Chrisley, who’d been convicted of federal charges of bank fraud and tax evasion in 2022 and were both pardoned by President Donald Trump in May.
This is the level of support it took for Braseel to get out. He spent 12 years in prison fighting his conviction. His family spent a small fortune on legal fees. People seeking post-conviction relief in Tennessee have much more recourse than they did a few years ago, but that doesn’t mean it’s anywhere near enough.
Back when we were at Riverbend, I remember when one day I asked Braseel—earnestly—if he thought doing time was harder on him, compared to those of us who were guilty. He immediately responded that the injustices he was seeing inside the system are not right for anyone. No matter how they came to be in prison.
Image (cropped) via United States Government Accountability Office
