At about 1:30 a.m., on April 22, 1991, a 9-year-old girl called police in Wilson, North Carolina–about 40 miles east of Raleigh–and reported that she and her 32-year-old mother had been attacked. Her mother had been assaulted with a hammer and both of them had been sexually assaulted, the girl reported.
The police began canvassing the neighborhood. Among those questioned was 25-year-old Keith Brown, who lived three houses away from the victims. During his interrogation, Brown, who was intellectually challenged, confessed to the crime. He would later say that he agreed to confess after he was promised a hamburger.
Brown was arrested on April 26, 1991 and charged with assaulting the mother with a deadly weapon as well as sexually assaulting the mother and her daughter.
While the case was pending, Brown was examined at the Dorothea Dix Hospital and declared competent to stand trial. On July 7, 1993, Brown pled no contest to sexual assault charges in Wilson County Superior Court. He was sentenced to 35 years in prison.
At the time, North Carolina officials routinely sent biological samples from unsolved cases to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) for analysis and comparison. Four years later, in 1997, for reasons never explained, the biological evidence from Brown’s case was sent to Florida even though the case was considered solved.
The evidence was analyzed and a DNA profile was obtained. The profile was entered into the FDLE DNA database and it was associated with 23-year-old Samuel Mosley, who had been convicted of aggravated assault in the past, which required him to provide his DNA for the database. At the time of the DNA hit, Mosley was in prison on a drug conviction.
Investigators determined that Mosley had been in North Carolina at the time of the attack on the woman and her daughter.
On July 7, 1997, a Wilson County grand jury indicted Mosley for the attack. That same day, Brown was released from prison. On July 9, 1999, North Carolina Governor James Hunt pardoned Brown based on actual innocence.
In 1998, Mosley was convicted of the 1991 assaults and was sentenced to 30 years in prison.
Brown sought compensation from the North Carolina Industrial Commission, but his request was denied.
– Maurice Possley
Posting Date: 08-29-2011
Last Update Date: 07-15-2026