CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — A bond hearing has been postponed in North Carolina for Joseph Brown, charged with first-degree murder in the death of his wife, Mamie.
He's been held since his arrest nearly two weeks ago in a South Carolina motel room, a day after the killing.
Documents uncovered in the wake of the crime reveal that the couple had been having financial problems, and that Mamie Brown had filed domestic violence complaints against her husband in 2003 and 2005.
Joseph Brown once spent 13 years on Florida's death row. His convictions on rape and murder charges were overturned in 1986, because of false testimony from a co-defendant. Prosecutors decided against re-trying him. He had been within 15 hours of being executed for the crime before a federal judge ordered a stay.
Since then, he has made a living speaking out against the death penalty. But family members say he ended up owing thousands of dollars in back taxes on his speaking fees.
