Non-IPNO exonerees

Levon Brooks was sentenced to life in prison for the 1992 murder and rape of his former girlfriend's three year-old daughter in Noxubee Parish, Mississippi. Almost 16 years later, he was able to prove his innocence in the courts.

Eighteen months after Mr. Brooks went to jail, Kennedy Brewer was wrongly charged with a nearly identical crime to the one for which Mr. Brooks was convicted.

Both Mr. Brooks and Mr. Brewer were convicted largely because of the testimony of two forensic scientists, Steven Hayne and Michael West, who have since been widely discredited.

Dr. Hayne was not properly board-certified and has been shown to not comply with basic professional standards. Dr. West, a bite-mark expert, has been expelled from professional associations and roundly discredited.

Findings by both Dr. Hayne and Dr. West (who have frequently collaborated, as they did in Mr. Brewer's and Mr. Brooks' cases) have been overturned in court multiple times because they are not based on science or facts.

In 2001 DNA testing conclusively excluded Mr. Brewer as the rapist in his case. The Innocence Project then began investigating the case and in 2008, Levon Brooks was released from prison based on the results of the Innocence Project’s investigation - the DNA left at the scene of the crime for which Mr. Brewer was convicted matched that of a local man who had initially been a suspect. Soon after, this man confessed to acting alone and committing both crimes.

On March 13, 2008, Mr. Brooks was cleared of all charges.

More information can be found on the website of the Mississippi Innocence Project.

Further Reading:
- Byrd, Sheila, “Man May Be Exonerated in Child Murder,” USA Today,  February 12, 2008.

- Mott, Ronni, “'The Nightmare is Over: Levon Brooks Finally Free” Jackson Free Press, March 13, 2008.