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| Debra Brown, right, hugs her son Ryan Buttars after exiting the Utah State Prison a free woman Monday, May 9, 2011, in Draper, Utah. After spending 17 years in prison Brown was released after her conviction for the 1993 murder of Lael Brown, no relation, was overturned. |
DRAPER, Utah (AP) -- It was a Mother's Day moment nearly 20 years belated. In the pouring rain Monday dozens of friends and family members stood waiting outside prison gates, huddling under umbrellas - some holding small children, others colorful balloons.
Shortly after 2:30 p.m. Debra Brown walked out of Utah State Prison after 17 years and touched off an emotional reunion. She had maintained her innocence all this time. Finally, a judge believed her and she was free to go.
"Maybe the weather doesn't look pretty to you guys, but it's the most beautiful day to me," Brown said later during a press conference with her attorneys and family.
"I'm probably the luckiest person on earth."
Brown, 53, was recently declared "factually innocent" in a 1993 murder, becoming the first inmate exonerated under a 2008 Utah law allowing judges to reconsider convictions based on new factual - not scientific - evidence.
Brown didn't pedal a powder-blue bicycle out of prison as she envisioned in a dream three years ago. But the coaster she imagined was waiting there in the parking lot - a stuffed Chihuahua in the plastic white basket and a paper "red carpet" rolled out beneath its tires.
She hugged her oldest son, Ryan Buttars, who is 35, and released a bouquet of yellow balloons into the air.
Her short-term plans are to go fishing and get baptized. A year from now she wants to have earned the right to go inside The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints temple in downtown Salt Lake City, visible from her attorney's office window. Brown could see the Draper Mormon temple from her prison window.
Brown refused to dwell on the lost time, even though her father and grandparents died while she was in prison, and her children grew up and got married.
She was arrested in 1994 - 10 months after the shooting death of longtime friend and employer Lael Brown, who was 75. They are not related.
Monday's reunion brought back fond memories.
"It's almost like I'm 17, and he's 12, and she's 11 again," said Buttars, pointing to siblings and referring to their ages when their mother was arrested.
"What should we do? Should we go fishing? Who cares what we do? She's free ... and we're keeping her."
Brown saved one of the biggest hugs outside the prison Monday for her brother Dave Scott, who made sure the bike his sister dreamed of ready to go.
"She found a picture of that bike, tore it out of the magazine, and sent it to me with the price tagged circled and the note, 'That will never happen,' " Scott said.
"I knew I had to go find that bike. It's been found and been purchased. I know she won't ride it today, but she'll get to look at it and honk that horn, and that's worth it."
Prosecutors are appealing the judge's decision to overturn the conviction but did not fight to keep her in prison during that process. Brown had been sentenced to life.
Assistant Utah Attorney General Scott Reed said he wants another judge to review the facts in the case because there is "too much contradictory and competing" information.
Second District Court Judge Michael DiReda last week ruled that Debra Brown's alibi shows she was elsewhere when the victim was shot to death at his home in Logan - about 80 miles north of Salt Lake City.
Reed said because the case is the first of its kind in Utah, "We want to be fairly certain of the process as it gets applied on other cases down the road."
But he didn't believe it appropriate to stay the release order further.
"It seems rather inhumane to continue to incarcerate her when the burden is now on the state to establish some error in the process," Reed said. "The presumption is she is innocent of the crime and should be freed. It seems cruel, frankly, to try to keep her there for any longer."
Members of the Rocky Mountain Innocence Center, which worked as co-counsel the last nine years to free Brown, expressed disappointment Monday upon hearing the state intends to appeal.
"The system failed Deb and, by doing so, sent an innocent person to prison for 17 years," spokeswoman Marla Kennedy said in a press release. "An appeal is a continuation of the injustice already committed on Ms. Brown, her family, and the citizens of Utah."
For his part, Reed said the victim's two sons remain "bewildered" at the latest ruling.
"This has always been a tragic family event that's never really had closure," Reed said. "On one end, they couldn't imagine Debra Brown would have killed Lael Brown because of the close association and what was supposed to be a fairly strong and positive business relationship.
"But on the other hand, if she's not the killer and legally at least today she isn't, then who is? It starts to look like the O.J. (Simpson) case. I don't know that I can tell the family that there will be any renewed investigation into how Lael Brown was killed."
The court, in addition to expunging Brown's criminal record, on Monday ordered her to receive financial restitution provided by the 2008 law.
She is to receive about $570,000 - with an initial payment of about $114,000. Expungement and payment are stayed, however, during any appeal by the state.
The Utah Attorney General's Office has filed a notice of intent to appeal the judge's memorandum decision declaring factual innocence but has 30 days to file the actual notice of appeal.
Brown said she wasn't worried about the money, even though other inmates ribbed her that she was going to be rich.
"What has been taken is a lot like what happens with rape victims - you don't get it back," Brown said. "No amount of money will replace what's gone. That's not the focus of my interest. I got everything I wanted already."
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