Georgia faith leaders urge clemency for Mr. Meier Jason Brown
U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Pardon Attorney
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.
- 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
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To:
U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Pardon Attorney
From:
[Your Name]
Dear Pardon Attorney,
We, as faith leaders throughout the state of Georgia, come together to ask that you grant clemency for Mr. Meier Jason Brown and commute his sentence to life without parole.
The first of many reasons to commute his sentence is Mr. Brown confessed within days of the crime and expressed deep and genuine remorse. He sought to plead guilty, to take responsibility for his crime. He does not need to be executed to take accountability for his actions.
We understand that Mr. Brown 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 anyone. We do not believe Mr. Brown is the “worst of the worst” for whom the death penalty is supposed to be reserved.
Mr. Brown’s upbringing bears considerable weight as mitigating factors, and yet despite these circumstances, Mr. Brown himself was never violent; the tragedy at the post office was an anomaly in his life. While he has been on death row at Terre Haute, Indiana, since December 2003, Mr. Brown has not had a single altercation with another inmate or staff member. He has proven over twenty years that he is not “the worst of the worst.”
We were disheartened to learn that his attorneys were extraordinarily underfunded and forced to trial in an absurdly short time frame. We are also aware of the racial and gender issues which concern us deeply.
Our sacred texts and traditions may differ but collectively our faith traditions call us to protect the dignity of all people. Mr. Brown’s background of poverty and abuse, coupled with his vulnerability to violence and other social determinants lead us to believe he was incredibly marginalized. Therefore, we urge you to support clemency.
That gap between principle and practice is often cited as evidence that Judaism is deeply uncomfortable with capital punishment, so much so that the rabbis of the Talmud erected significant legal bulwarks to make it exceedingly rare. Many Christians, too, follow his example and believe that the use of the death penalty should be exceedingly rare if not abolished outright.
We represent millions of faithful Georgians, united to protect human life and dignity. Hear and ACT on behalf of Georgia’s people of faith and grant clemency for Mr. Meier Jason Brown.
In Faith & Justice, The Undersigned