{
"type": "rich",
"version": "1.0",
"provider_name": "Action Network",
"provider_url": "https://actionnetwork.org",
"html": "",
"author_name": "GFADP",
"author_url": "https://actionnetwork.org/groups/gfadp",
"title": "Georgia faith leaders urge clemency for Mr. Meier Jason Brown",
"thumbnail_url": "https://actionnetwork.org//images/generic_facebook.jpg",
"description": "If you are the leader of a faith community in Georgia, we ask you to join us in urging the US Department of Justice and the Office of Pardon Attorney to grant clemency for Mr Meier Jason Brown, a Georgia man on federal death row. Learn more about Mr Brown and his case below, read our letter, and sign your name! Mr Meier Jason Brown is currently on death row in Terra Haute, IN. Mr Brown is 53 years old, and will be 54 on July 4th. He is from a large family in Fleming, GA (Liberty County). Mr Brown was arrested in early December, 2002 for the murder of a US postal worker in Liberty County, GA, immediately agreed to plead guilty, and the plea was signed and underway when US Attorney General John Ashcroft refused to sign off on it and demanded it go to a trial. Mr Brown was convicted at trial in November 2003 and has been on death row at Terre Haute since December 2003. Here are some important details from Mr Brown's clemency petition: Meier confessed within days of the crime and expressed deep and genuine remorse He sought to plead guilty from the outset and federal prosecutors recommended a plea agreement in exchange for a sentence to life without parole. This would have saved the Government substantial time, effort, and money and spared the victim’s family the pain of a trial The local district attorney and the detective who investigated the crime (and knew Meier well) supported the plea Under prior administrations, the plea would have gone through without requiring the approval of the Attorney General, but John Ashcroft changed that rule during the early days of the Bush administration and used his power to nullify Meier’s plea agreement and order prosecutors to take it to a death penalty trial Meier was convicted and sentenced to death less than a year after the crime took place The jury never knew that Meier had agreed to plea or that the US Attorney’s office had approved the plea prior to trial Meier Brown is the only federal prisoner currently condemned to death after having entered into an agreement to plead guilty in exchange for a life sentence He is also the only person condemned to death for the killing of a postal worker Meier went to the post office with the intention to steal three money orders in the exact amounts of his girlfriend’s overdue mortgage and bankruptcy bills. He did not enter the post office with any intention to kill Ms. Gaglia (or anyone). Meier’s upbringing was characterized by chaos, violence, neglect, and abject poverty. He and his siblings were almost always unsupervised. Two homes on their family’s land burned down within the span of a year, Meier’s two-year-old cousin drowned in a septic tank on the family property, and the local sheriff’s office responded to incidents on the property multiple times a week. Despite these circumstances, Meier himself was never violent; the tragedy at the post office was an anomaly. Meier poses no risk of reoffending in prison. During his one prior prison sentence (for an unarmed robbery), he had an exemplary record and was trusted to work outside the prison. He has been at Terre Haute since December 2003 and has not had a single altercation with another inmate or staff member. Meier Brown is not “the worst of the worst” for whom the death penalty is intended. He should not have received the death penalty when far more egregious cases have resolved in a life sentence. Race and Gender Implications (below pasted from petition) Meier’s trial attorneys were extraordinarily underfunded and forced to trial in an absurdly short time frame, both factors of which drastically increase the likelihood of a death sentence And here is a link to learn more; the 11th Circuit opinion gives a lot of factual background. 11th Circuit, 2013: 03 00001 CV BAE MEIER JASON BROWN v. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA (2013) | FindLaw",
"url": "https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/georgia-faith-leaders-urge-clemency-for-mr-meier-jason-brown"
}