Tuesday, February 28, 2023
The Fight for Arthur Brown: Brady Violations, Love & The Struggle to Save a Life
There is danger in looking for God. For, sometimes in our looking we miss the finding.
Arthur Brown wasn’t at the top of my list. In fact, I didn’t even know who he was until about nine months ago or so. You see, I was working on the case of another guy on death row when Brown’s name popped up. While I try not to look at the cases before I make contact with someone, this is a situation where I was told what was up. It was awful. The infamous Brownstone Lane Murders in Houston. All the victims were Hispanic. Four murder victims shot execution style. One was pregnant. Two people survived. For a total of seven victims (including the unborn child). As is often the case, the presented evidence in gruesome cases like this is damning. I’d read that one of the victims identified Brown as one of the perpetrators. I’d read that he fled. So, I quit reading. I just assumed that such facts were true. Quite frankly, I’m a minister not an arbiter of facts. It is my job to meet the condemned where they are…not where I or anyone else think they should be. So, that’s what I did.
For months, we wrote letters back and forth…and communicated through mutual friends. Then, the day arrived.
Just before 5am, I left the house to begin the arduous journey from Little Rock, Arkansas to the Polunsky Unit in Livingston, Texas…12-hours roundtrip. With regard to my ministry with Arthur Brown, I prayed that God would reveal to me what I needed to know and make me what I needed to be. With that, I was off. By the time I arrived, I was very tired. So, I went to the bathroom and splashed some water on my face. By the time I sat down with Arthur, I was back alive and ready to go. Expecting to see a hardened criminal, I was shocked when I saw his smile.
From the very beginning, I knew that Arthur was a warm person. All of the guys that I work with know that I don’t just minister to the soul…I also work to save their lives. So, Arthur launched into the various facts about his case. I need to clearly state that almost every person that I’ve ever worked with does this. Most proclaim innocence or at the very least try to excuse what they did. Honestly, I feel like I’ve heard it all before. This one was different. Arthur’s spirit was different. The way that he spoke about his case was of someone who was just flabbergasted by it all. I listened closely.
Then, he dropped the bomb. In recent days, various pieces of exculpatory evidence had been found by his attorneys. The withholding of such evidence by prosecutors is known as a Brady Violation (named after Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83 (1963)). In many situations, the existence of such material can stop an execution…and sometimes even exonerate someone. So, I’m incredibly interested to see where the coming appeals of his lawyer lead. Before our visit was finished, we got to talking about various pieces of literature. One of my favorite authors came up, James Baldwin. A quote from his If Beale Street Could Talk came to mind, “Neither love nor terror makes one blind: indifference makes one blind.” It would be easy to walk away from this new exculpatory information that was shared with me. It would be harder to engage it. I looked deep into his eyes…a real human looked back. While I knew I was never going to be completely certain about his case, I knew that I could not be indifferent to what he had shared with me.
Towards the end of our conversation, I told him that I believed that love was the highest manifestation of God. Furthermore, I described the salvific power of God’s love. Then, I wrapped up some of the spiritual conversation with an illustration, that the afterlife is swimming in a huge gelatin of electric love for all of eternity. While he thought that was a beautiful illustration, he told me that he prayed it would be a little longer before he got to find out whether it was true. With that, he affirmed his desire for me to be in the execution chamber with him if he ended up being executed next week (March 9). After a few more affirmations, it was time to wrap it up. So, I put my hand on the glass to give him a blessing. “See the Light. Become the Light. Be the Light.” With that, I told him I loved him and left. The last thing I saw was his smile.
For hour upon hour, thoughts of action filled my head. I had one week to save Arthur Brown’s life. In the car, I decided I’d give it all I got. So, let it begin… If I fail, I will stand in the execution chamber, tell him that God loves him and watch him die.
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In