in Noxubee County Circuit Court, Kennedy Brewer, black, 36, who had served time on death row, was officially freed

In Noxubee County Circuit Court, Kennedy Brewer, black, 36, who had served time on death row, was officially freed and the charges in his case dismissed.
In 1995, a Noxubee County jury convicted Brewer of capital murder and sentenced him to death in the May 1992 slaying of a 3-year-old girl, Christine Jackson. In 2001 (see Oct. 5, 2001) lawyers from New-York based Innocence Project, Vanessa Potkin and Peter Neufeld, asked for new Dna tests. The tests showed that semen removed from the victim's body did not match Brewer's. So he was moved off death row in 2002 when the DNA test showed his semen did not match the semen found on the victim, but he remained jailed in Noxubee County five more years because then-District Attorney Forrest Allgood of Noxubee County was seeking the death penalty in the retrial. Brewer was released on bond last September pending a new trial when the DA agreed not to seek the death penalty.
He was exonerated today, more than a week after another man confessed to the brutal crime. The same judge, Lee Howard, granted a new trial for a second man serving time for another child's murder in the same community. The judge freed that man, Levon Brooks, on his own recognizance - again based on statements allegedly made by the same suspect. District Attorney Ben Creekmore filed a motion to vacate Brewer's conviction days after the arrest of Justin Albert Johnson, 51, who authorities said told police he raped and strangled Christine Jackson.
On Friday, Creekmore apologized to Brewer for the miscarriage of justice. Attorneys said Johnson also allegedly confessed to the rape and murder of 3-year-old Courtney Smith in 1990. The man convicted in her death, Brooks, now 48, was sentenced to life in prison. It will be up to prosecutors whether to pursue Brooks' case further or move to exonerate him.