(Montgomery) – Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall welcomed a decision from the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals that vacated an earlier opinion of the court and affirmed a district court’s decision to deny a habeas petition related to the capital murder conviction of Brandon Washington of Birmingham. Washington was convicted of capital murder for the brutal 2005 killing of Radio Shack store manager Justin Campbell during a robbery of the store where Washington had once been employed.
“There is no disputing that Brandon Washington was found guilty by a jury of his peers for the brutal murder of Justin Campbell,” said Attorney General Steve Marshall. “Thanks to the hard work of lawyers in our Office’s Criminal Appeals Division and Solicitor General’s Division, the Eleventh Circuit’s opinion gives the Campbell family long-awaited justice.”
Twenty-year-old Justin Campbell, a married father of a two-year-old child, had gone to work at the Radio Shack store in Huffman on January 16, 2005. When Campbell’s wife was unable to contact him at the end of the day, she sent Justin’s father to the Radio Shack store. Justin was found by his father, shot in the back of the head, his wallet stolen, and $1,050 stolen from the store. Washington, who had also been an employee at the Huffman Radio Shack for several months, had been terminated earlier in January for failing to report to work. Washington was originally sentenced to death, but the Jefferson County Circuit Court ultimately sentenced him to life imprisonment without parole after several appeals. Washington had asked the Eleventh Circuit for relief from his conviction and sentence.
Attorney General Marshall commended Assistant Attorney General Marc Starrett, Solicitor General Edmund LaCour, and Deputy Solicitor General Robert Overing for their successful work on this case.
