SALT LAKE CITY — A woman serving a life sentence after being convicted of murdering her employer 17 years ago is innocent of the crime, a Utah judge ruled Monday.
It is the first time a conviction has been overturned using a 2008 state law that allows a person to appeal based not on scientific evidence but simply on clear and convincing evidence the person didn't commit the crime.
The ruling found Debra Brown "factually innocent" of killing her boss and friend, Lael Brown, primarily because she had a strong alibi for the time the victim was shot. The victim is not related to the defendant. Under the law, a finding of factual innocence exonerates the defendant.
Debra Brown, 53, was convicted in 1995 of first-degree aggravated murder and sentenced to life in prison. She will remain incarcerated while the Utah attorney general's office decides whether to appeal.
Brown was convicted in large part because prosecutors argued Lael Brown died on the morning of Nov. 6, 1993. But in Monday's ruling, 2nd District Court Judge Michael DiReda said evidence proves Lael Brown was alive that afternoon.
Two witnesses testified during an evidentiary hearing in January that they saw Lael Brown having dinner at a restaurant in Logan, about 80 miles north of Salt Lake City, later that day. DiReda found that although one of the witnesses was a friend of Debra Brown, the other "testified truthfully."
Additionally, the state medical examiner said the time of death was at night on Nov. 6 or the following morning.
"The court finds by clear and convincing evidence that Lael (Brown) was alive Saturday afternoon, November 6 and, therefore, that (Debra Brown) could not have killed Lael (Brown)," DiReda wrote.
Debra Brown's case was picked up by the Salt Lake City-based Rocky Mountain Innocence Center, which contended she was convicted only on circumstantial evidence and a "deeply flawed police investigation and trial." She said the court corrected "a miscarriage of justice."
Monroe didn't expect the state to appeal the ruling and expects Debra Brown to be released Monday from the Utah State Prison.
She said Brown was "very emotional" when she received the news.
"In some ways it was impossible to describe," Monroe said. "It took some time for it to sink in. She was overjoyed and disbelieving. As an innocent person in prison, she has had to maintain a lot of hope that eventually she'd come home ... As it started to sink in, and we were able to talk to her about the reality she would be coming home, she started envisioning being back with her kids and grandkids."
Brown's son, Ryan Buttars, 35, said all three of her children were ecstatic.
"It's kind of surreal right now because this is something we've basically been dreaming about for the last 17 years," said Buttars, who plans to drive from his home in Rigby, Idaho, to greet his mother when she is released. "It almost seems like a dream. I'm just floating."
He said he was just 17 and still in high school when his mother was arrested.
"She's been amazing, a rock," he said.
Assistant Utah Attorney General Scott Reed said his office has five days to decide whether to appeal the ruling. Brown will remain in prison in the meantime.
Reed declined to comment on the quality of the original investigation conducted by the Logan Police Department but said the case was "not without its problems." Logan police spokesman Jeff Curtis said the department hadn't yet reviewed the ruling, but said Brown received a fair trial.
"We're a little surprised at the ruling," Curtis said. "She was found guilty in front of a jury. ... That's our only stand on it."
Reed said he hoped the new law that vindicated Brown will be a useful tool and a "safety net" for the wrongly convicted. But he also is concerned it may give "undeserving people an opportunity to retest the evidence in a do-over fashion."
"My personal belief is it will spark more aggressive attempts on the part of those who are convicted and languishing in prison to assert their innocence now many years after the fact," Reed said. "We'll see an increase in the number of claims, but don't know if there will be an increase in the number of valid claims. It may make valid claims that much more difficult to identify."
Associated Press writer Josh Loftin contributed to this report.