paul skyers testified that derwin brown was assassinated to pave the way for sidney dorsey s comeback. the four co-conspirators, he said, were all promised promotions for killing brown. it was a very demented understanding and very irrational. but he believed that there would be a special election in which he could retake his office. full weight of the evidence against these two guys brought in the conspiracy that sid dorsey ordered it, brought in patrick cuffy, who was their star witness. and presented a case that i thought was a slam-dunk against these two guys. but it was not a slam-dunk to the jury. we, the jury, find the defendant, david isaiah ramsey, not guilty of felony murder. the jury found them not guilty of murder. the loss of the first case was a very vivid memory, that jury coming back. and they got off. they had to take my mom away in
that justice did prevail. so it was emotionally draining. i m glad i had the experience. not many lawyers in their career have an experience like that. and it was rewarding in the sense that at the end, justice did prevail. it was a bumpy road to get there and not a road that i would want to travel again. on december 15th, 2006, an ailing phyllis brown led a candlelight remembrance at derwin s grave. it was the sixth anniversary of the shooting. nine days later, on christmas eve, phyllis brown died of heart failure at the age of 52. coming up this was not the end. the world would hear from former sheriff sid dorsey again.
an ambulance. people just could not believe it. and it was just holy smokes, how did that happen? and the jury could not wrap themselves around understanding why these people would do such a horrible act. nor could the jury believe patrick cuffy, an admitted liar, or find a clear motive for the murder. cuffy s story deserved skepticism anyway because he conveniently flipped on sid dorsey when he got into trouble. how could anyone kill a sheriff-elect for nothing more than a promotion in a sheriff s department? now the four men accused of carrying out the assassination were free to walk the streets. only cuffy would serve less than a year on a reduced charge stemming from the shootout at his home. losing that first trial was very difficult. we knew they were guilty. but once that was over with, we knew we still had a job to do and that was to convict mr. dorsey. the murder trial of sidney dorsey began in june in a small
were it not for a huge tactical mistake that sid dorsey, himself, made, he could be walking the streets right now. it is widely believed that had dorsey decided to be tried in dekalb, he may have easily been acquitted, like walker and ramsey. dorsey was still a popular, well-known figure in dekalb county. and i think a dekalb county jury would have been very skeptical of the evidence against him. i m going to be in prison on the outside, but i ll be free on the inside. before his sentencing, dorsey steadfastly maintained his innocence. i do not have the blood of derwin brown on my hands. derwin brown s brother, ron brown, was at that sentencing. he probably actually believes in his mind that he does not have my brother s blood on his hands. and he probably rationalizes that by thinking to himself that he had someone else pull the trigger for him and that enables him to make that statement and actually believe it.
this was not a domestic. this was not a botched robbery, this was an assassination. who would want the sheriff elect assassinated? brown had been preparing to shake things up at the jail, secretly meeting with the district attorney swapping stories about corruption by outgoing sheriff, sidney dorsey. i just had dinner with derwin a week before he was murdered, and then to see him later in the morgue right before the autopsy started was one of those images i will never forget. the killing of derwin brown just made no sense at all. the only real enemy he had was sid dorsey. but it didn t make sense that dorsey would have been behind it because dorsey didn t have anything to gain. he had already lost the election. i sympathize in saying that with the his family, with the law enforcement community which i m a member of, you get the