Montgomery – A federal appeals court has denied a legal challenge from a man sentenced to death for the 2001 killings of a Sylacauga woman and her daughter.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit ruled convicted killer Wakilii Brown was not entitled to have his convictions or death sentence overturned, upholding an earlier ruling by a federal district court in Alabama.
In March 2001, 26-year-old Cherea Jemison and her 49-year-old mother, Dotty Jemison, were found dead inside Dotty Jemison’s home in Sylacauga from multiple injuries to the head and neck. Authorities tracked Brown to Cleveland, Ohio. After a standoff that lasted nearly 25 hours, police used tear gas to force him out, and Brown was arrested.
Brown was convicted of three counts of capital murder in Talladega County, and a jury recommended that he be sentenced to death. A judge imposed the sentence in May 2008.
Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall announced the ruling and credited Assistant Attorney General Henry M. Johnson with handling the case for the state.
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