Adam Braseel

Adam Clyde Braseel (born April 5, 1983) is an American former UPS worker who spent 12 years in prison after being wrongfully convicted of a 2006 home invasion and murder in Grundy County, Tennessee. In December 2021, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee fully exonerated Braseel by executive clemency. Generation Why, and news shows such as Ferrier Files.

Alleged crime and arrest At 9:52 PM, January 7, 2006, Grundy County Sheriff Department received an emergency call reporting an assault. Andrew Martin West, a patrol officer, drove to the home of 60-year-old Malcolm Burrows on the outskirts of Tracy City on Melisa Rock Road. Sergeant Mike Brown arrived and found 59-year-old Becky Hill, sister, badly beaten. Hill's 33-year-old son Kirk Braden told Brown he had been sleeping when he heard his mother scream. Braden said he woke up and fought off an intruder assaulting his mother. He described the assailant as a red haired man, of medium build, someone he'd never seen before. Hill said the same man had been at the house 30 minutes earlier and had told Burrows that his car had broken down nearby. She said Burrows drove off with the man in her Chrysler Fifth Avenue to go fix it. She said the same man came back alone and beat her. body was later found in a wooded area near the Chrysler.

A neighbor, Angela White, told investigators she had seen a "gold, shiny, new model car" parked facing towards the Burrows residence.

That same weekend, Adam Braseel was visiting his friends, the Seagroves family, at their house in Coalmont, approximately from Tracy City. The next day, Sheriff Brent Myers arrived at the Seagroves residence and confiscated the gold-colored Acura that Braseel had driven from his home in Franklin County. Sheriff Myers took Braseel's photograph and several articles of clothing to be tested along with his car at the TBI Lab in Nashville. Braseel was free to go.

Sale wrote extensively about how the stolen wallet was invented to hide a motive that was not brought to light at trial: Burrows was a well-known drug dealer, trafficking in opioids while leading a dual existence as an alderman. Sale's allegations were backed up by Knoxville journalist Matt Lakin.

Sale said Brown's report wasn't the only thing that went missing: when first investigating the case back in late 2014, Sale was told by the new Grundy County sheriff Clint Shrum in emails that all the files from the Braseel case were gone. Shrum later told Lakin that, when he took office, all the files were gone, "There was nothing but a pencil." Adam Braseel had no connection to anyone in the drug trade.

On October 7, 2016, the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals reversed Angel's ruling and reinstated Braseel's conviction. The court opined that when Braden selected Braseel from a single photo, it was admissible because it was the first photo on the stack. The appeals court also said that, despite the fact that the trial judge's instructions to the jury were deficient, they were harmless and would not have made a difference. Adam Braseel went back to prison on October 11, 2016.

Prosecutor Steve Strain tabled a motion for Angel to recuse himself, which he refused. Strain then tabled a motion to disallow Brown from testifying, which was denied. Only when Brown was set to testify, Strain revealed that, a year and half ago, the state had re-examined a fingerprint found on the passenger side of the car Burrows drove to help the killer. The print was matched to Kermit Bryson, an alleged perpetrator in the 2018 killing of Grundy County deputy Shane Tate. Bryson fled, and after a lengthy manhunt, was found mortally wounded with the same weapon that killed Tate. Alex Little amended the appeal, and built a case around Bryson.

2019 hearing At the 2019 corum nobis hearings, Elizabeth Rector testified that Kermit Bryson told her he was part of Killing and told her he had been put up to it by a nurse practitioner.

After Brown and Rector testified, District Attorney Mike Taylor offered Braseel a deal to walk free if he pleaded no contest, which he took. In 2022, Braseel sued Grundy County, alleging that the prosecution intentionally framed him for the murder.