Prosecutor on Jawanza Brown case calls it "sad"

Fri., Mar. 13 2009 @ 1:15PM

Jawanza Brown

Big whoops: Kevin Harrell was the prosecutor in the Jawanza Brown case that ended this week in a conviction and 36-year jail sentence for the 19-year-old. I'd previously reported that Teresa Moore was the state's attorney. My confusion came from the fact that Brown was scheduled for trials in two cases on the same day: Moore is the state's attorney for the other case, in which Brown is accused of three counts of distribution of a controlled substance, one count of drug possession and resisting arrest.

The point I'd been trying to make was that the same prosecutor who saw Brown get acquitted of murder in 2007 now successfully convinced a jury to convict Brown for assault, and that's still true. Harrell was the lead state's attorney for Brown's trial in 2007, while Moore was his second chair.

I asked Harrell what it was like to face Brown in a courtroom for the second time. "In a word, sad," Harrell said. "Regardless of the acquittal, when you get a second chance like that, you need to take advantage of it."

In the immortal words of, uh, whoever said it first: My bad.