Brian Baldwin

Brian Keith Baldwin (July 16, 1958 – June 18, 1999) was an African-American man from Charlotte, North Carolina, United States of America, who was executed in 1999 in Alabama. Many believe that he was wrongfully convicted of the 1977 rape and murder of a 16-year-old Hispanic girl in Monroe County whom he and another individual had kidnapped and held captive for approximately forty hours before her murder.

Baldwin's involvement in the initial robbery and kidnapping of the victim is undisputed, but he later claimed that his confession to his direct participation to the murder was false. He said he made it under coercion by the local police in Wilcox County, Alabama, where he was arrested, accusing them of beating him under interrogation. The allegations were disputed and advocates for Baldwin were accused of falsifying evidence of torture.

Death penalty opponents regard this case as one in which racial bias contributed to the wrongful conviction by an all-white jury of an 18-year-old black man, in a county that was 46% black in population. Further, they believe he was executed despite evidence that he did not commit Rolón's murder. The appeals process was marked by conflicts of interest, as the presiding judge at Baldwin's trial also ruled on the appeals, against common practice. Before Baldwin's execution in 1999, leading political and religious figures petitioned Governor Don Siegelman for clemency on his behalf. Siegelman refused, saying that although he was "deeply troubled by some of the matters raised," he wrote "this matter does not rise to a level that warrants clemency."

Background Brian Keith Baldwin was born in Charlotte, North Carolina in 1958. As a juvenile, Baldwin was charged with kidnapping and rape in North Carolina. He was adjudged delinquent on a lesser charge of assault with intent to commit rape.

Over the course of approximately forty hours, Rolón was held captive by both men in the trunk of her car and on two occasions, received non-fatal stab wounds when she began screaming and both opened the trunk to stab and silence her.

They were taken to court in Monroe County, where Rolón had been found. They were each indicted for aggravated robbery and murder. This combination of charges amounted to capital crime; each man was thus eligible for the state's mandatory death penalty if convicted. The presiding judge at trial would hold a sentencing hearing to determine if there were mitigating circumstances to reduce the penalty. Each was tried separately. Horsley confessed to the murder of Rolón. He was executed for capital murder in 1996.

Baldwin later said that after he was arrested as a suspect, the local police beat him and subjected him to shocks from an electric cattle-prod, forcing him to confess to Rolón's murder. He later retracted the confession. Three fellow inmates claimed that they had seen bruises Baldwin's back and body after the interrogation. However, only one of them testified and another fellow inmate said he saw Baldwin in jail and that he was not threatened or tortured at any point.

During an investigation in 1999 , in an attempt to recover case evidence for DNA analysis (not available at the time of the trial), it was found that all evidence in the case was lost or destroyed after Baldwin's execution.