AI Summary
5 min readOn a cold, rainy night in December 2000, Derwin Brown, the sheriff-elect of DeKalb County, Georgia, was gunned down in his driveway just three days before he was to take office. He had just won a runoff election against the charismatic, scandal-ridden incumbent sheriff, Sidney Dorsey. The murder set off one of the most consequential investigations in Georgia history—one that would eventually implicate the very sheriff Brown had defeated, and put District Attorney J. Tom Morgan in the crosshairs of a conspiracy. Morgan, who prosecuted the case and later wrote the book A Rainy Night in Georgia, joined the podcast to walk through the investigation, the corruption that preceded it, and the personal toll of seeking justice when the target is a sitting law enforcement official.
The Corruption That Triggered a Political Assassination
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What you'll learn
- 1 (00:00) **Episode Intro & Advertisements** - Podcast opens with sponsor messages for Northwell Health, Progressive Insurance, Empire City Casino, and The First 48 podcast.
- 2 (02:37) **Guest Introduction: J. Tom Morgan** - Host Alice introduces former DeKalb County DA J. Tom Morgan, noting his co-host Brett is absent due to a flat tire.
- 3 (04:46) **Origin Story: From Child Abuse Prosecutor to DA** - Morgan explains how he specialized in crimes against children in 1985, long before it was standard practice.
- 4 (07:00) **Running for District Attorney** - Morgan describes how his colleagues urged him to run for the open DA seat, and he ran unopposed.
- 5 (09:26) **Leading the Office & Writing "Ignorance is No Defense"** - Morgan discusses the shift from line prosecutor to running a 150-person office.
- 6 (12:58) **The Murder of Sheriff-Elect Derwin Brown** - Morgan explains why he personally responded to the crime scene: a protocol he developed for officer-involved shootings and line-of-duty deaths.
- 7 (14:46) **Ad Break** - Progressive Insurance advertisement.
+ Full timestamped outline available in the app
Show Notes
Alice interviews J. Tom Morgan about his new book, A Rainy Night in Georgia: A Lawman's Brutal Murder, a Rogue Southern Sheriff, and a Prosecutor's Quest for Justice. Pick it up wherever you buy books.
Check out our other show, The Prosecutors: Legal Briefs, for discussion on cases, controversial topics, or conversations with content creators.
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