David Brown was executed by the State of North Carolina for the murders of a mother and her daughter
According to court documents David Brown would stab to death Shelly Diane Chalflinch, who was 26, and her 9-year-old daughter, Christine. The pair would be stabbed hundreds of times
David Brown would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
David Brown would be executed by lethal injection on November 19 1999
David Brown Photos
David Brown Case
state of North Carolina is on the verge of the unthinkable: executing a man who may be innocent. Even if you support the death penalty, you should be deeply troubled by this case and your government’s callous response to it.
Unless Gov. Jim Hunt intervenes, David Junior Brown, now known as Dawud Abdullah Muhammad, will be killed at Central Prison early Friday morning in connection with the 1980 stabbing deaths of Diane Chalflinch and her daughter, Christine, in Pinehurst.There is clearly more than a reasonable doubt that Brown is guilty. Prosecutors lost evidence, hid witnesses and ignored leads that pointed to different suspects. The case against Brown is incomplete, circumstantial and fraught with troubling inconsistencies.
Most of the media reports about this case describe the physical evidence against Brown as overwhelming. That is simply not true. The evidence is sensational, and the years have dramatically embellished it.
A recent news story said Brown was convicted of the crime because his ring was found inside the body of Chalflinch, his bloody palm print was found on the wall of her apartment, and the bloody footprints led to Brown’s door. The ring was found in Chalflinch’s body. However, Brown took it off the Sunday before the murders to disc jockey at a friend’s party and never saw it again until after his arrest. He always took it off before disc jockeying. At least one other possible suspect, a man with a relationship to the victim and with a history of violence, was at the party where Brown took off his ring. There was no bloody palm print. Testimony at the trial indicated that there was a partial print belonging to Brown on the wall of the victim’s apartment, but law enforcement authorities admitted that the print could have been left days, weeks or even months before the crime occurred. Brown was a friend of the victim’s and had moved furniture in their apartment.
There were no bloody footprints. The alleged “trail of blood’ was actually traces of blood that could not even be identified as human. I could have been there for decades.
That is the state’s case: a possibly stolen ring and inconclusive traces of blood. The sensational discovery of the ring apparently not only halted the investigation 20 years ago but continues to overshadow the evidence in the case today, evidence that points to Brown’s innocence.
An eyewitness saw the victims at a convenience store during the time the prosecution theorized the murders were being committed. The prosecutors withheld this information from Brown’s attorneys for 14 years.
Two witnesses saw a man with long, blond hair jump from a balcony near the victims’ apartment when the murders could have occurred. The prosecution lost a long, blond hair found at the scene. Authorities did not pursue the jumper or two other suspects who fit that description and had relationships with Chalflinch, including the suspect at the party where Brown took off his ring.
Police found none of the victims’ blood in Brown’s apartment, nor any of Brown’s blood in the victims’ apartment even though Brown was by all accounts visibly and extremely intoxicated the night prosecutors say he committed the crime. The prosecutors refused to let Brown’s attorneys examine the crime scene, conduct unprecedented in North Carolina.
Racism infected the case from the beginning. Brown is African American; his jury was all white. For 18 years prosecutors withheld a trial note, written by an assistant district attorney prosecuting the case, referring to “two nigger hairs.’
The Attorney General’s office is still vigorously pursuing Brown’s execution despite this troubling evidence.
David Junior Brown’s case is deeply flawed. Shouldn’t we be sure before we execute someone?
This case is not about the death penalty or even if David Junior Brown should be in prison. It is about whether the state of North Carolina should kill a man who could be innocent. Gov. Hunt must stop this execution. Common sense and simple justice demand it
