In the 1990s while serving as Assistant District Attorney Scott Brewer was involved in a string of controversial cases that put Black men on death row. In many of these cases Brewer and his boss Ken Honeycutt fabricated or withheld key evidence.
In 2004 Jonathan Gregory Hoffman, a death row inmate, was awarded a new trial after Honeycutt admitted that critical evidence had been withheld at a 1996 trial.
In 2006 the Associated Press reported the North Carolina State Bar investigated Brewer and Honeycutt’s actions, finding they lied about a witness to win a case they would have lost otherwise. The memo the State Bar issued alleged Brewer committed felony obstruction of justice and subornation of perjury, which means pressing another person to lie under oath, during the 1996 murder case.
Brewer only escaped disciplinary action that would have resulted in disbarment due to clerical error in 1998 by the State Supreme Court. At the time Hoffman’s attorney Mike Howell stated, “They are skating, all because this rule wasn’t published in an old law book? I wish I could find one of those technicalities and get one of my clients off in a murder case.”
In 2007 U.S. District Court Judge Graham Mullen found while reviewing the case determined Brewer suppressed witness statements and lied about it to the court.
Progressive newspaper Indy Week wrote a lengthy report on Brewer’s conduct, reporting “The same year, a federal judge cited a separate case, a 12-year-old capital trial, in which Brewer denied knowing about dubious statements made by the state’s key witness. Years later the witness’ statements were discovered in Brewer’s file.”
North Carolina Republican House Caucus Director Stephen Wiley said, “Scott Brewer’s record of destroying the rule of law with fabricated evidence to put Black men on death row makes him unfit for elected office. He should resign from the State Legislature and his colleagues should denounce his illegal and immoral actions as a prosecutor immediately.”R
Former Prosecutor and Judge Scott Brewer Has Spent His Career Damaging the Integrity of the Justice System
